The ACLU wants to know what Brendan Carr and the FCC were saying behind closed doors about Jimmy Kimmel before the agency abruptly called ABC’s station licenses in for early review.
In a Freedom of Information Act request filed Tuesday, the civil liberties group asked the FCC to turn over emails, meeting notes, legal memos and other records tied to the decision to force eight Disney-owned ABC stations to seek renewal years ahead of schedule—and specifically requested communications mentioning Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel Live! staff, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.
The ACLU says it suspects the FCC’s stated rationale for the early review—an investigation into possible unlawful discrimination tied to Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies—was merely a “pretext” for punishing ABC over speech the Trump administration didn’t like.
“We believe that the FCC’s stated basis for requiring the early license renewal is mere pretext for punishing ABC because the Trump Administration disliked what ABC’s on-air talent had to say,” the group writes. “We also believe the FCC and the Trump Administration are trying to send a message to other broadcasters that if they air content the Administration doesn’t like, they could face similar penalties.”
At the center of the ACLU’s argument is Kimmel—and the timing of the FCC’s April 28 order.
Five days earlier, Kimmel had joked during a faux White House Correspondents’ Dinner roast that Melania Trump had the “glow” of “an expectant widow.” After an attempted attack at the actual dinner, both Melania and Donald Trump publicly condemned Kimmel on April 27, with the president demanding that Disney and ABC fire him.
One day later, the FCC ordered all eight ABC-owned stations to seek early renewal of their broadcast licenses, which otherwise were not scheduled for renewal until between 2028 and 2031.
“The timing of the order would be suspicious enough on its own,” the ACLU writes, “but in context of other recent retaliatory action against ABC, there is little doubt about the FCC’s true goals.”
And the group points to a familiar piece of evidence: Carr’s previous threat against ABC over Kimmel.
“This isn’t the first time that the Trump FCC threatened regulatory action against ABC over one of Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes,” the ACLU writes.
After Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s killing last September, Carr famously warned that ABC and its affiliates could “take action on Kimmel” or face “additional work for the FCC ahead.” ABC subsequently pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! from the air for several days before returning the show amid widespread backlash.
Disney itself made much the same case last month. In a filing opposing challenges to the licenses of its ABC-owned stations, the company accused the FCC of political retaliation and argued that Carr effectively followed through on his earlier Kimmel threat when the agency ordered the accelerated reviews immediately after Trump’s latest complaints about the host.
Carr has denied that the two are connected. Speaking two days after the April order, the FCC chair said there had been “no pressure from the outside” to accelerate ABC’s license renewals and insisted that the agency’s ongoing investigation into alleged discriminatory practices at Disney and ABC was “the basis for our decision.”
The ACLU now wants to see the receipts.
Its FOIA request seeks all communications among FCC employees or commissioners since January 20, 2025 that discuss Disney, ABC, any Disney-owned ABC station, Kimmel or Jimmy Kimmel Live! staff. It also seeks communications concerning complaints about ABC programming or broadcast licenses from Trump, Melania Trump and a lengthy list of administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Susie Wiles, Stephen Miller and Karoline Leavitt.
“Given the FCC’s apparent vendetta against broadcasters who say things the President doesn’t like—the public must know the truth about the FCC’s reasons for requiring 8 ABC stations to renew their broadcast licenses years early,” the ACLU writes.
The group also places the ABC dispute within what it sees as a broader pattern, pointing to the FCC’s scrutiny of The View, investigations involving NPR and PBS, and its reopening of a probe into CBS over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.
Ultimately, the ACLU says it wants the records released so the public can determine whether the FCC is “using its authority to illegally retaliate against broadcasters for saying something the government dislikes” and attempting to chill protected speech.
The FCC is expected to make a determination on ABC’s station licenses in the coming weeks.
Read the ACLU’s letter to the FCC below:
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These lackeys need to be put in hail ASAP. Doing his illegal dirty work, should mean that not only you don’t get paid, but you do get jailed. Bannon has been invisible since he rightly did time.
We can hope. But trhmp gives out pardons for big time drug dealers now so… maybe not?