On Monday, a legal watchdog group dispatched a pair of letters to the disciplinary bodies responsible for investigating attorney misconduct in Maryland and Washington, D.C. In the letters, obtained exclusively by Status, the bipartisan Legal Accountability Center requested a formal review of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, arguing that he has "violated his ethical obligations" as a licensed attorney "under the Rules of Professional Conduct."
"Chair Carr has engaged in ethically improper conduct by leveraging regulatory authority in a manner than appears retaliatory toward protected speech and selectively targets broadcasters who President Trump dislikes," lawyers for the group wrote. "This conduct is inconsistent with the Washington D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct governing attorneys and threatens confidence in the impartial administration of justice."
The group cited a number of actions Carr has taken over the past year as Donald Trump's FCC boss, including most recently launching an unprecedented regulatory assault on Disney after a Jimmy Kimmel joke that triggered the president and first lady—with the White House demanding the House of Mouse fire the comedian. "This sequence—protected speech, political backlash, regulatory action—constitutes a classic indicator of viewpoint-based regulatory retaliation," lawyers for the Legal Accountability Center wrote in their ask for an investigation that, if launched, could potentially lead to Carr losing his law license.
After sending Carr a message asking for comment Monday evening, he surprised me with a phone call in which he blasted the watchdog group and delivered some of his first public comments since ordering an early renewal for Disney’s station licenses last week. In our nearly 15-minute impromptu interview, Carr…
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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. (Photo by Brendan Smilowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Pushing Back on Pete: The NYT filed a fresh lawsuit against Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department on Monday, challenging its new policy requiring credentialed journalists to have an official escort anywhere inside the Pentagon. The suit argues the policy is…
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