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
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