FCC Chair Hit With Legal Ethics Complaint Over Alleged Abuse of Office
Watchdog calls for disbarment over Carr’s role in Paramount’s settlement with Trump
WASHINGTON, July 31, 2025 – A press freedom watchdog has called for the disbarment of Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr.
The complaint, submitted by nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation to the D.C. Bar’s disciplinary council on Monday, alleged that Carr, as a licensed attorney in D.C., has violated multiple rules of professional conduct, including those prohibiting dishonesty, abuse of office for political gain, and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.
At the center of the complaint was Carr’s role in the FCC’s approval last week of the Paramount-Skydance Media merger, which came just two days after Donald Trump publicly confirmed that Paramount had paid him $16 million to settle a lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview. Months earlier, Carr had revived a dormant FCC inquiry into that interview, raising what critics allege was a coordinated effort to coerce the settlement.
“Carr’s apparent collusion with Trump to shake down Paramount is a misuse of a public agency to meddle with the president’s personal legal proceedings to help him obtain a settlement plainly not justified by facts or law,” the complaint, attributed to Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, stated.
“Carr slow-walked his review of the merger while Trump, Carr’s close ally, used a frivolous lawsuit to extract a $16 million settlement from Paramount,” he stated. “Everyone from U.S. senators to CBS employees to a dissenting FCC commissioner has said the settlement appears to have been a bribe to grease the wheels for Carr’s FCC to approve the merger.”
“Carr’s willingness to abuse his authority as FCC chair to further Trump’s scheme to launder illegal bribes through the court system warrants disbarment on its own,” FPF wrote. “It is hard to imagine attorney conduct more brazenly unethical than helping a politician turn both the courts and the government agency they chair into conduits for bribery.”
The complaint also cites a broader pattern of politically motivated investigations, including investigations targeting MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and probes into public broadcasters that have covered immigration and other sensitive topics.
“Putting Paramount aside, Carr has pursued numerous other frivolous and unconstitutional legal proceedings and threatened more of them in furtherance in his efforts to intimidate broadcast licensees to censor themselves and fall in line with Trump’s agenda,” FPF wrote.
Just Tuesday, Carr opened a new inquiry into whether Comcast and NBCUniversal have exerted undue influence within affiliation agreements with local broadcasters.
“This is not something Carr is hiding – he announced after his appointment to chair the FCC that he would take direction from President Trump, saying ‘it’s going to be his agenda that we need to be pushing,’” the complaint read. “Despite Carr’s law license and the responsibilities it carries, he has not wavered from that commitment, regardless of whether Trump’s agenda is illegal and unconstitutional.”
Should the D.C. Bar pursue the matter, Carr could face professional sanctions ranging from public reprimand to disbarment.
Carr’s office did not respond to a request for comment by Broadband Breakfast in time for publication. However, the FCC chairman has publicly defended the Paramount-Skydance merger, framing it as a necessary step to restore “full, accurate, and fair” reporting. He acknowledged that the incoming ownership had pledged to make changes to CBS’s programming.
“President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape," Carr said, speaking on CNBC Friday following the Skydance-Paramount merger.
“Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change. That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network,” Carr said in a statement issued after the merger approval. “In particular, Skydance has made written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.”
Founded in 2012, the FPF advocates for press freedom and journalistic protections. It is best known for managing the SecureDrop whistleblower platform and tracking press freedom violations in the U.S.
Broadband Breakfast emailed Carr’s office seeking a comment on the bar complaint at 2:50 p.m. ET on Wednesday, and hadn’t received a response by the time of publication.
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