1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

Congress Must Investigate FCC Chairman Brendan Carr I am calling on Congress to open a formal investigation into FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, including his ethics compliance, conflicts of interest, White House communications, use of FCC regulatory authority, Project 2025 activities, financial relationships involving regulated entities, and connections relevant to Palantir Technologies. Congress needs to subpoena the records and determine exactly what has been happening. Carr’s wife, Machalagh Carr, is Head of Global Policy at Palantir Technologies, one of the federal government’s most significant technology and defense contractors. Her move to Palantir followed an extensive career at the highest levels of Congress. She served as Chief of Staff to Speaker Kevin McCarthy, previously served as General Counsel to the Speaker and Office of the Republican Leader, and before that served as General Counsel and Parliamentarian and Oversight Staff Director for the House Ways and Means Committee. She also served as Director of Oversight and Investigations for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and as Senior Oversight Counsel for the House Natural Resources Committee. In other words, Palantir’s Head of Global Policy is not simply a former government employee. She spent years working at the center of congressional leadership, investigations, oversight, law and policymaking before moving into a senior policy position at a company receiving enormous amounts of federal business. Congress should immediately obtain Brendan Carr’s financial disclosures, ethics opinions, recusals, waivers and FCC records involving Palantir and determine whether he participated in matters affecting his household’s financial interests. This cannot be viewed in isolation. Palantir’s federal footprint has expanded substantially through programs including Project Maven and TITAN, while the Army has established a Palantir enterprise contracting vehicle with a ceiling of up to $10 billion. And Machalagh Carr is hardly the only example of movement between government and Palantir. Former Representative Mike Gallagher, who chaired the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and served on the House Armed Services Committee, left Congress in 2024 and became Palantir’s Head of Defense. Joseph Larson provides another striking example of the personnel pipeline surrounding defense AI. Larson previously served as Head of AI Policy and Strategy at Palantir, later entered government and became a senior Project Maven official, and ultimately served as the Pentagon’s Deputy Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer for Algorithmic Warfare. His official biography also documents private-sector service with Anduril. That career path crossed directly among a major defense-technology contractor, Project Maven, the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, and another defense-technology company. These personnel movements do not end there. Public reporting has identified additional current or former officials moving between Palantir and national-security or defense institutions. Congress should reconstruct those employment timelines individually and determine what programs each person worked on, what procurement or policy authority they exercised, when private employment discussions began, what recusals occurred, and what contacts occurred after leaving government. This is exactly why the revolving door matters. Congress should not merely count how many people changed jobs. It should determine whether individuals helped shape, oversee or implement federal programs and procurement decisions involving technologies or companies with which they previously worked—or subsequently joined. Congress and GAO should examine Palantir contracting alongside the revolving door of personnel moving among Palantir, DoD/CDAO, Project Maven, Congress and other defense-technology companies. Carr also authored the FCC chapter of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 while serving as an FCC commissioner. Members of Congress previously requested ethics and Hatch Act investigations concerning that activity. Congress should obtain the complete results of those referrals, related ethics opinions, and Carr’s communications with Heritage and Project 2025 personnel. The questions surrounding Carr’s exercise of FCC authority are equally serious. Reporting based on records obtained through FOIA litigation documented repeated contacts between Carr and the White House. Congress has already demanded information concerning the FCC’s extraordinary early license-renewal proceedings involving eight ABC stations and communications involving ABC, Disney, Jimmy Kimmel and the White House. Congress should subpoena those communications. Carr’s acceptance of valuable CBS/Paramount-associated Kennedy Center Honors tickets also demands scrutiny. Congress should obtain the gift disclosures, valuations, ethics approvals, impartiality determinations and records concerning Carr’s participation in matters involving Paramount. There is also a broader network Congress should examine. Christ Kirk DC is a Washington church plant of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, and part of the CREC network associated with Doug Wilson. Carr has been observed exiting Christ Kirk DC on several occasions. The church’s establishment in Washington was explicitly connected by Wilson to influence and access in the nation’s capital. Announcing the church plant, Wilson wrote that the change in administration presented “many strategic opportunities” involving evangelicals “both in and around the Trump administration,” and stated that Christ Church Moscow and “the CREC at large” already had members living and working in Washington. Wilson also described the mission in terms of “rebuilding the walls of Christendom.” A Christ Kirk pastor subsequently described the effort to Religion News Service as an indirect form of politicking, explaining that politics is downstream from culture and worship. That stated effort to establish and expand CREC’s presence among people working in and around the federal government makes Carr’s repeated observed presence at Christ Kirk relevant to congressional fact-finding. Congress should determine the nature of Carr’s relationship with the congregation and whether government officials, federal contractors, regulated entities, government policy or official business intersect through this network. Religious worship itself is not the issue; the issue is whether an organization expressly established in Washington to take advantage of “strategic opportunities” among people in and around the administration has become a venue for relationships or coordination involving officials exercising federal power. Recent reporting concerning Carr’s lengthy association with Washington’s controversial Midtown Group adds another matter requiring examination. Former members described coercive control and sexual exploitation of teenage girls and young women within that organization, and one former member told The Guardian that Carr “knew the deal.” Congress should obtain the relevant vetting and disclosure records and determine what Carr knew, what he disclosed, and whether representations made during his federal appointments were accurate. Enough questions have accumulated. Congress should stop relying on press statements and obtain the underlying evidence. I am asking Congress to: Preserve and subpoena Carr’s relevant emails, texts, encrypted messages, calendars and White House communications. Obtain his financial disclosures, recusals, waivers, ethics opinions and gift determinations. Identify every FCC matter involving Palantir and determine Carr’s participation. Investigate the ABC/Disney proceedings and White House involvement in FCC regulatory decisions. Obtain the complete Project 2025 ethics record and results of previous referrals. Examine the Paramount/CBS gifts and Carr’s participation in matt