Exclusive: Internal Emails Reveal Conservative Group Bypassed FCC Rules to Push Complaint Against Jimmy Kimmel

New internal emails obtained by WIRED reveal that a small conservative legal organization cut through standard Federal Communications Commission procedures last September, leveraging direct access to FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s office to rush forward a formal complaint targeting late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and his parent network ABC.

The correspondence confirms the group, the Center for American Rights (CAR), sent its filing straight to Carr’s senior counsel, skipping over the career FCC staffers who normally handle initial reviews of this type of public complaint.

The exchange of emails pulls back the curtain on how CAR—an organization whose legal filings frequently mirror former President Donald Trump’s criticisms of mainstream media—has helped craft the legal framework used to challenge major broadcast networks. Kimmel was temporarily pulled off the air in September following threats from the FCC, a move that sparked widespread condemnation from press freedom advocates and First Amendment legal scholars.

The backlash against Kimmel and ABC ignited after Carr appeared on a conservative podcast to discuss a monologue Kimmel delivered following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Carr implied that ABC’s local affiliate stations could face regulatory consequences if they failed to take action against the host.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr stated at the time. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

The FCC did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment on this reporting.

Public records show CAR president Daniel Suhr—who previously served as policy director for former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker—had direct access to Carr’s top legal team, and repeatedly used that access to route his group’s filings around standard consumer affairs staff. Emails show that over the course of several months, CAR regularly provided the chair’s office with legal justifications to target major broadcast networks that had drawn criticism from the Trump administration.

Carr’s predecessor, Jessica Rosenworcel, had previously dismissed three earlier CAR complaints targeting ABC, CBS, and NBC stations, ruling that the claims were “at odds with the First Amendment.” Shortly after taking over as chair, Carr reversed that decision and reinstated all three complaints.

By September 2025, CAR’s lobbying and legal efforts had already shifted the course of FCC regulatory proceedings. The group’s complaint against CBS over a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris was used as leverage during the agency’s review of the Paramount-Skydance merger. The merger was ultimately approved in July, after Skydance agreed to add a conservative ombudsman to CBS News as a condition of approval.

When reached for comment by WIRED, Suhr said CAR follows all FCC regulations governing public comments and ex parte communications. He confirmed the group’s initial September complaint was submitted through the agency’s public consumer complaints portal, with relevant staff copied on the filing. Suhr explained that the supplemental complaint was put together quickly after Carr’s podcast appearance because CAR had already completed extensive prior research on news distortion, Kimmel, and late-night television, and had no advance warning of Carr’s planned comments.

“In this instance, we filed our initial September complaint in the general FCC consumer complaints portal and, as you say, cc’d the relevant staff on it,” Suhr told WIRED.

Suhr also argues that the FCC’s existing news distortion standard applies to content that misleads audiences, not only provably false statements of fact. He points to a 2018 letter from Senate Democrats that called on the FCC to investigate Sinclair Broadcast Group for news distortion, arguing CAR is simply asking for consistent, evenhanded enforcement of the FCC’s public interest requirement for broadcasters.

Suhr has publicly argued that major broadcasters are failing to meet their public interest obligations laid out in the Communications Act, pointing to the left-leaning tilt of most late-night talk shows and widespread public distrust of national news outlets. When asked in a February interview whether his end goal was conservative control of American broadcast television, Suhr agreed.

“Yes, I'd be thrilled with that outcome,” he said.

Emails obtained by WIRED confirm that on September 4, just moments after submitting his complaint against Kimmel through the FCC’s public system, Suhr sent the full filing directly to two senior aides in Carr’s office. The email, opened with “Dear Erin and Katie,” was addressed to Erin Boone—Carr’s senior counsel for media and enforcement, who also served as acting chief of the FCC’s media bureau, the division that oversees broadcast television and radio licensing—and Katie McAuliffe, Carr’s policy advisor. Suhr attached a 12-page formal filing plus five exhibits of opposition research, and included his filing’s ticket number so Carr’s team could “find it easily in the FCC consumer complaints system.” Emails also show FCC staff had a standing order to route all CAR complaints directly to Boone.

While the formal complaint targeted Kimmel himself, the largest of the five exhibits attached to Suhr’s email was a full political profile of every member of the show’s staff, including writers, producers, camera operators, and production assistants. Time stamps on the documents show CAR spent the full afternoon before the filing pulling Federal Election Commission records, compiling more than 60 pages of individual campaign donation histories from Jimmy Kimmel Live! employees. A separate exhibit catalogs 215 separate campaign donations from Molly McNearney, the show’s executive producer and Kimmel’s wife. Two additional exhibits document Kimmel’s own personal donation history, pulled from campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets and the FEC.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was killed during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, September 10. Kimmel addressed the killing in his opening monologue the following Monday, and critics claimed his remarks blamed the MAGA movement for Kirk’s murder. Outrage grew the next day, fueled by segments on Fox News and backlash from pro-MAGA online influencers.

Shortly after, Carr appeared on The Benny Show, a YouTube program hosted by conservative commentator Benny Johnson. On the show, he called Kimmel’s monologue a “very, very serious issue” for Disney—ABC’s parent company—and suggested local station owners that carried Jimmy Kimmel Live! needed to “step up,” warning that broadcasters could either discipline Kimmel themselves or face formal regulatory action from the FCC.

Just hours after Carr’s podcast appearance, emails show Suhr submitted a supplemental complaint directly to Carr’s office. The new filing embraced the exact framework Carr had outlined on the show: the “news distortion” doctrine, a rarely invoked FCC rule that bars broadcasters from intentionally falsifying factual news reporting. Suhr addressed the supplemental filing directly to the chief of the FCC’s enforcement bureau, and urged the agency to go so far as to pull KABC—ABC’s owned-and-operated Los Angeles station that carries Jimmy Kimmel Live!—off the air if the network did not comply.

As WIRED has previously reported, the FCC’s West Coast enforcement director—whose office has direct regulatory authority over KABC—emailed Carr later that same day, urging him not to give Disney leniency and offering to assist with any action against the network.

Later that same evening, Nexstar Media Group announced it would pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! from all of its ABC affiliate stations. Sinclair Broadcast Group followed within hours, removing the show from its lineup and demanding Kimmel donate to Kirk’s nonprofit Turning Point USA. At the time, both station groups had multibillion-dollar transactions pending before the FCC for approval: Nexstar was seeking the green light for a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna, and Sinclair was pursuing a series of station acquisitions that required commission approval. Shortly after, Disney suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely. Neither Disney nor Sinclair responded to requests for comment for this story.

New emails show the FCC’s public call center was overwhelmed with complaints the very next day. Within 90 minutes, the consumer bureau had logged 170 calls, with more than half going unanswered. Overnight, the agency received roughly 700 formal complaints. A consumer affairs deputy described the surge as a “very large call volume,” noting “all generally related to Kimmel going off air.”

Carr’s legal arguments have been widely rejected by First Amendment scholars, former FCC officials, and press freedom organizations. In November, seven former FCC commissioners—five of whom are registered Republicans—submitted a formal petition asking the agency to roll back Carr’s new application of the news distortion policy, arguing Carr had claimed authority that both the Supreme Court and Congress have repeatedly denied the FCC. Robert Corn-Revere, a former FCC chief counsel, told Deadline that Carr’s threats against Disney and ABC “sound like statements by a mob boss.”

The FCC holds independent authority to launch investigations into the broadcasters it licenses, and does not technically require an outside complaint to take action. But regulatory actions targeting broadcast content almost always stem from third-party filings. An outside complaint gives the commission a formal complainant on record, specific allegations to cite, and a public record that allows the agency to frame any resulting action as a response to public grievance.

In March, the FCC approved the Nexstar-Tegna merger, waiving a longstanding federal rule that prohibits a single company from owning TV stations that reach more than 39 percent of U.S. households. In a public statement following approval, Nexstar said the merger would give it access to 80 percent of all television households in the country.

This outcome—a consolidated broadcast landscape dominated by a handful of large station groups, operating under negotiated commitments with the FCC—aligns closely with the end goal Suhr has publicly outlined. In a February interview on WNYC’s On the Media, Suhr laid out his clearest vision yet for what he wants the FCC to do and the future of American broadcast television.

“In that world,” he said, “I think it would look a lot more like the AM radio.”