FCC Officials Face Ethics Complaints Over Paramount Gifts During Warner Bros. Merger Review

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty are now facing formal ethics complaints from two separate government watchdog groups over gifts they accepted from Paramount, adding fresh scrutiny to the agency's handling of the company's pending merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

The Democracy Defenders Fund and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, commonly known as CREW, filed separate complaints with federal ethics officials. CREW’s complaint was directed to the FCC Office of Inspector General, while the Democracy Defenders Fund addressed its filing to the inspector general, the FCC’s designated agency ethics official, and the Office of Government Ethics.

The complaints stem from a ProPublica investigation published last month, which found that Paramount had given Carr complimentary tickets to the Kennedy Center Honors across multiple years, during a period when the company had active business before the FCC. That same investigation reported that Trusty's own financial disclosure filings listed more than $12,000 in tickets to Paramount-sponsored events, raising additional questions about the scope of the gifts accepted by commission officials.

According to the newly filed complaints, the central concern is whether Carr and Trusty can impartially handle regulatory matters involving Paramount given the value and frequency of the gifts they received. That question carries particular weight now, as the FCC considers Paramount's proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, one of the largest media deals currently awaiting federal approval.

Both groups ask federal ethics officials to investigate whether the gifts complied with federal rules. The Democracy Defenders Fund also urges Carr to recuse himself from matters involving Paramount, including the Warner Bros. Discovery merger review.

Federal ethics rules generally bar executive branch employees from accepting gifts from companies regulated by their agencies or seeking official action from them, unless an exception applies. When prior approval is required, the regulations call for written authorization from an ethics official. In making that determination, the official must consider pending agency matters, the employee’s role, the value of the gift and whether accepting it could create the appearance of preferential treatment. The complaints question whether the Kennedy Center Honors qualified for that exception and whether the required review was properly conducted.

The Democracy Defenders Fund also asks investigators to examine whether the tickets may have violated the federal illegal gratuities statute. Unlike bribery, an illegal gratuity does not require proof of a corrupt exchange, but it does require a link between something of value and a specific official act. The complaint does not claim that the gifts changed an FCC decision, but argues that the agency’s review of Paramount’s proposed acquisition is the official action investigators should examine.

The FCC has previously pushed back on the implication that anything improper occurred, telling ProPublica that the agency's own ethics officials reviewed and signed off on the gifts under applicable federal rules at the time they were received.

Paramount has offered a similar defense, noting that inviting government officials to attend the Kennedy Center Honors is a longstanding, bipartisan practice among media companies and one that the company maintains complies with existing ethics guidance.

The proposed Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger remains subject to FCC review because the combined company would control CBS television stations operating under FCC licenses and requires agency approval for its foreign ownership structure.