Two government watchdog groups have filed ethics complaints demanding investigations into whether Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty violated federal gift rules by accepting luxury gala tickets from Paramount while the agency reviewed the company’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The complaints, filed by Democracy Defenders Fund and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, center on Kennedy Center honors gala tickets sponsored by CBS, now owned by Paramount. Trusty’s most recent financial disclosure shows Paramount gave her two tickets to the December 2025 gala worth more than $12,000. Carr’s financial statements show he has accepted honors gala tickets from CBS or its parent company eight times since his 2017 appointment, totaling over $75,000 in gifts.
According to Carr’s latest disclosure, filed June 22, he accepted two tickets to the 2025 gala and reception worth $12,390. Yet ProPublica’s investigation found Carr sat with his wife in a private skybox at the December gala alongside Paramount CEO David Ellison and other executives—seats that sell for $125,000 a ticket according to Kennedy Center guidelines. Carr did not respond to requests clarifying the discrepancy in reported value.
Both commissioners voted last year to approve Paramount’s merger with Skydance. Federal ethics rules ban government employees from accepting gifts from entities regulated by or seeking official action from their agency.
A ProPublica analysis of ethics disclosures found that seven of the 10 commissioners who served since 2016 accepted tickets worth more than $260,000 combined from CBS or its parent company.
Democracy Defenders Fund, led by former White House ethics czar Norman Eisen, filed its grievance with the federal Office of Government Ethics, the FCC’s inspector general, and the FCC’s ethics office. The group said the investigation should examine whether Carr and Trusty broke rules on accepting gifts or violated criminal laws prohibiting federal officials from accepting illegal gratuities.
The watchdog groups are requesting that Carr and Trusty repay Paramount the fair market value of any improper gifts and that Carr be disqualified from further decisions on Paramount’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. An FCC spokesperson previously said agency ethics officers have cleared commissioners to accept the tickets for years, finding it consistent with ethics law. Carr, Trusty, and the FCC declined to comment on the complaints.
