FCC Chair Brendan Carr accepted $63,000 in gifts from Paramount while reviewing merger deals

Jul 15, 2026

FCC Chair Brendan Carr has accepted over $63,000 in gifts from Paramount, including expensive Kennedy Center gala tickets, while the agency reviews the company's major merger deals. Ethics experts call this a blatant conflict of interest and are demanding recusal, but the FCC defends the practice as long-standing. The gifts coincide with the FCC's review of Paramount's pending $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Kennedy Center gala gifts

▪Commissioner Olivia Trusty's attendance came five months after she cast a decisive vote approving Paramount's $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.
▪FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty and a guest also attended the gala using tickets from Paramount worth more than $12,000.
▪The private skybox seats at the Kennedy Center gala were valued at $125,000 per ticket.
▪At the December 2025 Kennedy Center gala, FCC Chair Brendan Carr and his wife sat in a private skybox with Paramount CEO David Ellison.

Paramount merger oversight

▪The FCC is currently reviewing Paramount's pending $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
▪The Writers' Guild also filed a lawsuit against the deal, stating it threatens workers' livelihoods.
▪The gala attended by Carr and Trusty occurred as Paramount was launching its takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal requiring FCC approval.
▪California, New York, and 10 other Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger under anti-monopoly laws.
▪The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger would unite Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services, as well as the CBS and CNN networks.

Federal ethics violations

▪Federal ethics rules prohibit employees from accepting gifts from any entity that is regulated by or seeks official action from their agency.
▪Four ethics experts told ProPublica that by accepting the tickets, FCC commissioners compromised the agency's impartiality.
▪Ethics experts have called for the commissioners who accepted gifts to recuse themselves from any decisions on the Paramount merger.

Historical gift acceptance patterns

▪Seven of the 10 FCC commissioners who have served since 2016 accepted gala tickets from CBS or Paramount, worth a combined total of over $260,000.
▪FCC Chair Brendan Carr has accepted Kennedy Center gala tickets at least seven times since his 2017 appointment, totaling over $63,000 in gifts.
▪An FCC spokesperson stated that agency ethics officers have cleared commissioner appearances at the gala for years under multiple administrations.

Widely attended gathering exemption

▪An FCC official said commissioners were told the gala met the criteria for the "widely attended gathering" exception to federal gift rules.
▪A 2009 Office of Government Ethics memo prohibits officials from accepting free attendance to Kennedy Center events from anyone other than the Center itself.
▪A 2007 Office of Government Ethics memo clarified that performing arts presentations do not qualify for the "widely attended gathering" exemption.