Exclusive: Biden’s FCC Nominee Works For A Think Tank Funded By The Telecom Giants She Was Nominated To Oversee, Memo Claims

The Biden administration’s FCC nominee may have deep conflicts of interest with the companies she may oversee, according to a memo obtained by The Daily Wire.

According to the memo, Sohn’s public records show that she is a consultant for the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, a think tank dedicated to expanding broadband access. However, many telecom giants have funded the think tank she has been nominated to supervise. Sohn has spoken out against this exact behavior before.

According to Sohn’s Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report Sohn made $137,000.02 in the Office of Government Ethics starting January 2022 “consulting fees” Nearly half her salary is reported to be from the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Sohn described her work in the filing as “[p]ublic advocacy, coalition building and strategic guidance that broadens public awareness about the importance of universal, affordable and open communications networks.”

According to the Benton Institute’s website, Sohn has been a Senior Fellow, Public Advocate Since 2018, she has been a member of the organization and has published almost 20 articles on their blog. Another article was co-authored by her for TechDirt.

According to a however, donor list also on the Benton Institute’s website, the organization is sponsored by several of the largest telecommunications giants in the country, companies that Sohn will oversee if appointed to the FCC. Among the organization’s “Platinum Sponsors” are Google Fiber, the internet giant’s fiber-to-the-premises broadband subsidiary; Verizon; and T-Mobile. One of the group’s “Gold Sponsors” The National Lifeline Association is a non-profit that supports federal Lifeline programs. “Silver Sponsors” Include AT&T, Dish Network and Twitter.

These exact groups have been criticized by Sohn in the past. “Yes, it’s better that @FCC is again run by telecom, cable & broadcast industries & their bought & paid 4 think-tanks,” Sohn posted a sarcastic tweet in 2017 to respond to a critic. “Now *that’s* democracy!”

Yes, it’s better that @FCC It is once again controlled by the broadcast, cable and telecom industries. They also bought & paid for 4 think-tanks. Now *that’s* democracy! https://t.co/7rlzHTeqDD

— Gigi Sohn (@gigibsohn) November 29, 2017

Sohn’s position at the Benton Institute is advertised in her Twitter bio.

January 3, 2009, President Joe Biden re-nominated Sohn will fill the vacant FCC seat previously held by Ajit Pay. She was previously nominated by Ajit Pai in 2021. But her nomination was stopped due to concerns about her overtly partisan statements, and advocating for censorship on conservative news networks such as Sinclair Media.

“My principal concern with Ms. Sohn is that she has expressed a significant willingness to use government power against political enemies, and to use government power as a tool of censorship,” Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz In a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in March last year. “And I think the FCC is a particularly dangerous place for a partisan who is willing to try to muzzle those with whom she disagrees.” Cruz also raised ethical concerns regarding a secret settlement reached by the company Cruz served on its board, one day after Biden announced that she would be nominating her.

Her nomination was blocked in the Commerce Committee. She was sent to the full Senate for confirmation with additional procedural hurdles. The Senate did not bring the nomination to the floor and instead sent the confirmation to Biden on the 3rd of January, before the 117th Congress ended and the 118th Congress began.

Sohn is currently under fire for her role on the board. Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) opposed two bipartisan laws that were passed in 2018 to stop online sex trading and also shared a tweet. attacking Ex-President Trump