FCC Commissioners Face Ethics Complaints for Taking Luxury Gifts From Paramount

Government watchdog groups have filed formal complaints against Federal Communications Commission commissioners for accepting luxury Kennedy Center gala tickets from Paramount while the company sought agency approval for its one hundred eleven billion dollar acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Per ProPublica's investigation, FCC Chair Brendan Carr received over seventy-five thousand dollars in such gifts since his appointment in twenty seventeen, including a December twenty twenty-five gala where he sat in a private skybox with Paramount's chief executive. Commissioner Olivia Trusty accepted more than twelve thousand dollars in tickets to the same event and subsequently voted to approve Paramount's merger with Skydance. Federal ethics law prohibits officials from accepting gifts from entities seeking official action, and four ethics experts told ProPublica that both commissioners compromised the FCC's impartiality and should be disqualified from the pending Warner Bros. acquisition decision. The complaints request investigations into potential ethics violations and demand Chair Carr repay the value of the gifts.

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