Tag Archive for: federal communications commission

Former Democrat Staffer Arrested For Abducting, Assaulting Women On The Loose After Posting Bond

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A former Democratic Hill staffer and official for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Jeffrey Gary, is out on bond after being accused of abducting and sexually assaulting two women.

Gary, a now former assistant division chief FCC was taken into custody and charged with assault and battery, sexual battery, and two counts of abduction involving the use of force, stemming from incidents reported on May 30, according to an ALXnow report.

Court records show he was released on June 13 after posting four bonds totaling $14,000. 

Gary is a graduate of  Georgetown Law where he was a global law scholar and was employed as assistant division chief at the Federal Communications Commission, according to ALXnow. He remained in his position until his arrest on June 1.

“Upon hearing of this disturbing incident we took immediate action against this employee. His employment with the agency has been terminated,” the FCC told the Caller in a statement.

Before joining the FCC, Gary briefly worked as a staff assistant for Democrat Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell in 2015. He later served as a law clerk for Democrat Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden during parts of 2017 and 2018, according to a Legistorm profile that also lists his tenure at the FCC.

Jeffrey Gary Legistorm Profile (Daily Caller Screenshot)

Jeffrey Gary Legistorm Profile (Daily Caller Screenshot)

He later opened his own consulting firm “Gary Consulting,” according to records from OpenSecrets.

The City of Alexandria announced the arrest of the Fairfax County man in connection with a violent assault near the Braddock Metro Station.

In a press release, officials stated, “The Alexandria Police Department (APD), in collaboration with the Metro Transit Police Department (MTPD), has arrested 35-year-old Jeffrey Gary, a resident of Fairfax County, in connection with assaulting a woman on Friday evening near the Braddock Metro Station.”

The incident occurred around 9:41 p.m. Friday. According to the city, “a woman in her mid-30s was walking in the 1100 block of Madison Street after exiting the Braddock Metro Station when she was approached from behind by the suspect.”

“He grabbed her and wrestled her to the ground, attempting to restrain her,” the statement continued. “The victim bravely resisted, shoved the suspect away, and ran to safety before calling 911. No weapon was used in the assault.”

Police say Alexandria officers responded quickly and began working with Metro Transit Police.

Authorities credited their success to surveillance and teamwork. “Through the strategic use of technology, including APD Public Safety cameras, and close coordination with regional law enforcement partners, detectives were able to identify the suspect.”

Finally, with support from Fairfax County Police, an arrest was made. “With the assistance of Fairfax County Police, an early morning search warrant was executed, and Gary was taken into custody.

Alexandria Circuit Court Judge Katie Uston approved bail for Jeffrey Gary under several conditions.

He must remain under house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor, undergo both mental health and substance abuse evaluations, and is prohibited from going near the Braddock Road and Potomac Yard Metro stations, according to the report.

Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter stated that his office strongly objected to Gary’s release and is currently pursuing an appeal of the court’s decision.

“We do not agree with the court’s ruling on bail and are appealing it to the Court of Appeals,” Porter told ALXnow. “While the defendant is presumed innocent and a charge is not proof of guilt, we are limited in what we can publicly say while the case is ongoing.”

Gary is set to appear in court again on July 7 and is being represented by a public defender. 

The Daily Caller reached out both Cantwell and Wyden’s offices for comment but did not receive a response from either prior to publication.

The Caller also reached out to the Alexandria Public Defender’s office and did not receive a response prior to publication.

AUTHOR

 

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: FCC Commissioner Wants Regulatory ‘Cows’ Lined Up ‘For The Slaughterhouse’

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Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Nathan Simington outlined the regulatory “cows” his agency is “lining up for the slaughterhouse” as part of its “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative, in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Trump-era deregulatory push, spearheaded by the commissioner and FCC Chair Brendan Carr, targets what Simington described as outdated broadcast media regulations — rules from the Truman administration that no longer reflect the media landscape in 2025.

“Let’s talk about profane cows, because these are the ones that we’re lining up for the slaughterhouse,” Simington told the DCNF. “I think one of the prime areas of interest for ‘Delete, Delete, Delete’ should be our broadcast media regulations. These broadcast media regulations, in many cases, come — you were talking about the Truman administration — some of them are just that old. Others are from the 1970s. They’re from an era when broadcast media was the only form of telecom media that most people had access to. Obviously, that has changed radically.”

WATCH:

The “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative, launched in March, invites the public to flag FCC rules they believe should be scrapped. The aim, according to Simington, is to modernize the Commission’s rulebook by gutting what he called “path dependen[t]” relics from a pre-streaming era.

“In 2023, streaming subscriptions surpassed cable subscriptions in the United States, and broadcasters are not in the same kind of economic and cultural positions that they once were,” he said. “So, the idea that [broadcasters] should still be as intensely regulated as they were during that era — even if you are a believer in media regulation, which I’m not, particularly — but even if you were, the argument isn’t there anymore. There really is no argument other than path dependence and historical practice.”

The FCC is considering cuts to longstanding media ownership caps, operational restrictions and decades-old filing requirements — unless they’re explicitly mandated by Congress or the White House. Simington said that unless the president “wants it to stay,” it should be up for deletion.

“I think we should take a hard look at every media ownership rule, at every operational restriction,” the commissioner said. “And unless it’s something that’s been directly mandated by Congress, or where we have clear direction from the West Wing, that the president wants it to stay, we should consider deleting, deleting, deleting it.”

AUTHOR

Thomas English

DCNF Technology Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Massive Telecom Merger Champions Workers In A Way Biden Admin Never Could, FCC Chair Says

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Massive Telecom Merger Champions Workers In A Way Biden Admin Never Could, FCC Chair Says

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) greenlit Verizon’s $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications on Friday — but only after Chairman Brendan Carr insisted on a slate of labor protections he said there was “no way” the Biden administration would have pursued.

The deal requires Verizon to adopt sweeping reforms benefitting tower climbers, trench diggers and fiber splicers — a class of “unsung heroes” he said the previous FCC ignored in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“I don’t envision a world in which the prior administration would have looked out for America’s tower crews and blue-collar workers in this way,” Carr told the DCNF. “It comes down to the priorities of the administration and what types of deals are struck — and we didn’t see any of these types of deals. We saw deals at the FCC, specifically designed to benefit different progressive stakeholder groups, but there was nothing along these lines happening out of the prior administration.”

Carr, who negotiated the agreement alongside the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE), made labor reforms a non-negotiable prerequisite for regulatory approval. The chairman emphasized his years of experience embedding himself with telecom crews, scaling towers alongside workers to gain firsthand insight into the risks and realities they face.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with them,” Carr said. “I’ve been on top of several 2,000-foot broadcaster towers with them, on top of water towers — basically every type of pole — and it’s real work. It’s hard work. And it’s important that we make sure they’re being treated fairly.”

The agreement — outlined in Verizon’s letter to the FCC — cracks down on persistent industry pain points, limiting Verizon’s reliance on 1099 workers, creating hotlines to report illegal laborers and ending the “turf vendor” model. Under that system, local firms were routinely shut out by middlemen who parceled out contracts to low-cost subcontractors, driving down wages and weakening safety standards on site, according to a NATE press release from January. The trade organization didn’t respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Verizon will also scrap its matrix pricing structure, a flat-rate payment scheme NATE criticized for ignoring regional cost variations and the real-world complexities of certain projects.

NATE, which represents over 1,000 businesses in the telecom construction sector, lauded the agreement as a “breakthrough” in a Monday press release — specifically thanking Carr for his role.

“Chairman Carr has invested a lot of time and sweat equity visiting sites and conducting tower climbs with some of America’s best contractor firms and technicians,” CEO Todd Schlekeway said. “These tangible field experiences have provided the Chairman with a deep understanding of the prominent role that NATE members play daily conducting the tough, gritty work on the frontlines to enable connectivity.”

Smaller contractors also scored practical financial wins under the deal. Verizon agreed to accelerate audits — ending long payment reviews by capping them at six months after project completion — and committed to covering third-party compliance software fees, removing a costly headache for firms forced to buy expensive reporting tools just to collect payment. New joint working groups between Verizon and NATE will keep tabs on implementation, ensuring the changes stick.

“Most people, when they turn on their smartphone or turn on their TV — if they think about it at all — maybe they think it’s magic or pixie dust,” Carr said. “But it’s some of the best people you’ll ever meet. Just real, salt-of-the-earth American workers.”

To secure FCC approval, Verizon also agreed to scrap its company-wide diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs “effective immediately,” according to a letter filed with the commission Friday. The telecom giant dropped its workforce diversity targets, ended bonus incentives linked to demographic quotas, and folded multiple employee resource groups into a single compliance-focused office. Verizon didn’t respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Carr described this change as a “good step forward for equal opportunity, nondiscrimination and the public interest” in an X post Friday.

Hours later, the FCC announced its approval of the Verizon-Frontier merger, with Carr casting the included protections as part of the broader pro-worker posture of the Trump administration.

“Usually when you see large transactions, they have a way of taking care of Wall Street interests and Main Street can get left to the sidelines,” the chairman explained. “But one of the things President Trump has been very clear about is that his administration is looking out for the blue-collar worker. You can certainly see that in this particular FCC decision.”

AUTHOR

Thomas English

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: FCC Commissioner Seeking Investigation Into Allegation CBS Distorted Harris’ ’60 Minutes’ Interview

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A member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has asked the body’s chair to take up a complaint filed with the FCC to compel CBS to release the full transcript from its “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Daily Caller News Foundation learned first.

CBS aired two different broadcasts with separate answers from Harris in response to the same question from “60 Minutes” interviewer Bill Whitaker on whether Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “listening” to the Biden-Harris administration. FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington told the DCNF that while the commission often receives frivolous complaints alleging news distortion, the complaint lodged on Oct. 16 by the Center for American Rights (CAR) against WCBS, CBS’ New York subsidiary, is substantively different and should not be dismissed at face value.

“Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region,” Harris responded in a previewed clip of the “60 Minutes” interview that aired on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Oct. 6.

“We are not gonna stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end, “Harris answered during the “60 Minutes” broadcast that aired the following night in primetime.

“The FCC does not regulate, or really even respond to, allegations of politically unfavorable coverage or legitimate editorial discretion,” Simington wrote in a statement to the DCNF. “The recent complaint regarding WCBS-TV raises a fully different set of issues regarding whether or not coverage was intentionally distorted: reporting that something was said in response to a question that literally was not. I don’t know whether that’s true, but it’s a different issue.”

A person familiar with the FCC told the DCNF that while CAR’s complaint could potentially move forward, the Democratic chair of the commission, Jessica Rosenworcel, is unlikely to act on the complaint, especially 18 days before the presidential election. In the event former President Donald Trump returns to the White House, the commission could be given a green light to act on the complaint with a Republican commissioner appointed as chair, the person told the DNCF.

When any of CBS News’ wholly owned and operated broadcast subsidiaries attempt to renew their license under a majority Republican FCC, the commission could put conditions on the license, including compelling the broadcaster to release the “60 Minutes” transcript, according to the person.

CAR’s complaint alleges that because WCBS aired two distinct broadcasts of the Harris interview — one on “Face the Nation” and the other on “60 Minutes” — with different responses from the Democratic candidate, the conflicting answers “amount to deliberate news distortion.”

“CBS crosses a line when its production reaches the point of so transforming an interviewee’s answer that it is a fundamentally different answer. This, CBS may not do,” the CAR complaint states. “Here, CBS has taken a single question and transformed Harris’ answer such the general public no longer has any confidence as to what the Vice President actually said in response to the query.”

“This isn’t just about one interview or one network. This is about the public’s trust in the media on critical issues of national security and international relations during one of the most consequential elections of our time,” Daniel Suhr, CAR president, wrote in a statement to the DCNF. “When broadcasters manipulate interviews and distort reality, it undermines democracy itself. The FCC must act swiftly to restore public confidence in our news media.”

Trump’s campaign has called for CBS subsidiaries’ licenses to be revoked and for the network to release the full interview transcript.

“The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview,” Karoline Leavitt told The New York Post. “We call upon 60 Minutes and CBS to release it. What do they, and Kamala, have to hide?”

“A giant Fake News Scam by CBS & 60 Minutes. Her REAL ANSWER WAS CRAZY, OR DUMB, so they actually REPLACED it with another answer in order to save her or, at least, make her look better. A FAKE NEWS SCAM, which is totally illegal,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Oct. 10. “TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE. Election Interference. She is a Moron, and the Fake News Media wants to hide that fact. An UNPRECEDENTED SCANDAL!!! The Dems got them to do this and should be forced to concede the Election? WOW!”

CBS has so far declined to release the interview transcript. CBS’ New York subsidiary did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

Adam Pack

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The Biden Admin Is Pursuing Total Domination Of Americans’ Digital Lives

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President Joe Biden’s administration has recently taken unprecedented action to exert influence over Americans’ digital lives, including broadband internet, net neutrality, social media and artificial intelligence (AI).

The Biden administration is pushing for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to claim substantial control over the internet, pursuing a court ruling to gain the right to censor Americans and has issued a broad executive order to regulate AI. Such governmental dominance over the digital realm could have significant adverse effects on American consumers, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“These latest moves shift the balance between governmental oversight and individual freedoms heavily toward the government,” Internet Accountability Project Founder and President Mike Davis told the DCNF. “Excessive government control from the Biden administration would curtail the very essence of a free and open digital environment, compromising privacy rights and growing the alliance between Big Tech and the federal government.”

For instance, the Biden administration has called upon the Democrat-controlled FCC to implement new rules designed to tackle “digital discrimination,” a move that experts argue would drastically broaden the commission’s regulatory authority. The primary focus of the rules, which the commission will vote on on Nov. 15, is to combat “digital discrimination of access” to broadband internet, as expressed in section 60506 of Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“Biden’s plan would be an unprecedented expansion of regulatory power that grants broad authority to the administrative state over internet services,” Heritage Foundation Tech Policy Center Research Associate Jake Denton told the DCNF. “This plan empowers regulators to shape nearly all aspects of how ISPs [internet service providers] operate, including how they allocate and spend their capital, where they build new broadband infrastructure projects, and what types of offerings are made available to consumers.”

“If enacted, these centralized planning measures could profoundly transform the digital experiences of consumers — a troubling prospect that should worry all Americans about what the future of the internet could look like in this country,” Denton added.

Furthermore, the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to halt an order that blocked it from engaging in social media censorship after an appeals court partially affirmed it in September. The Supreme Court granted a pause on the injunction in October, but also agreed to consider Missouri v. Biden, a free speech case challenging the administration’s endeavors to suppress social media content, according to a court order.

“President Biden’s pronounced efforts to extend government control over the expansive tech landscape point toward an unprecedented level of government intervention in Americans’ digital lives and basic freedoms,” Davis told the DCNF. “Consolidation of power over the tech space within the government, working in tandem with its corporate allies in Big Tech, will stifle innovation, freedom of speech, and freedom of association. Diversity of ideas and technological advancements will suffer.”

A House Judiciary Committee report published on Monday revealed examples of internet censorship by the federal government, including the Biden administration.

“We see [the Biden administration trying to exercise control of the internet] from the social media side, where there was just new evidence released by [House Judiciary Committee] Chairman Jim Jordan that showed the collusion between the government and social media to censor individual Americans that were simply exercising their free speech rights,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told the DCNF.

Moreover, the FCC is also pushing to restore net neutrality, making a significant move toward reestablishing it in October by voting in favor of a notice of proposed rulemaking. Net neutrality rules force ISPs to provide equal access to all websites and content providers at the same costs and speeds, regardless of size or content.

“We have seen several recent actions that shift from a light touch, free market approach to a more regulatory and precautionary approach including the revival of ‘net neutrality’ … and presumptions that AI should be regulated by the government in a top-down approach,” Cato Institute Technology Policy Research Fellow Jennifer Huddleston told the DCNF. “These actions are concerning as the light touch approach the U.S. has traditionally taken has benefited consumers by allowing entrepreneurs and innovators to enter the market with minimal government intervention or barriers.”

Biden recently signed the first ever AI executive order at the end of October and it is sweeping, covering areas such as safety, security, privacy, innovation and “advancing equity,” according to its fact sheet.

“The through line between all of these various things that are going on, including the administration’s new AI executive order … is there should be nothing that takes place on the internet that the administrative state doesn’t have a say to second guess it,” Carr told the DCNF.

The White House and FCC did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

JASON COHEN

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Exposing The Corruption’: Senate Republicans Target Biden DHS ‘Censorship’ Agency

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Biden’s Plan To End ‘Digital Discrimination’ Would Lead To More Gov ‘Control Over The Internet,’ FCC Commissioner Says

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President Joe Biden’s administration has urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enact new rules aimed at tackling “digital discrimination” that FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr says would radically expand its regulatory scope.

The rules, which the Democrat-controlled FCC will vote on on Nov. 15, seek to grant the commission expanded authority to oversee nearly all facets of internet service using the principle of equity, Carr told the Daily Caller News Foundation. These regulations draw their authority from a section of Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which guarantees “equal access” to broadband internet service, and carry the potential for financial penalties for “discrimination” related to providing internet service.

“There’s no element or component of internet service that will not, for the very first time, be subject to FCC regulation,” Carr told the DCNF. “And it does so through this lens of equity, which is a broad and sort of nearly unlimited sort of phrase in terms of the discretion the government would have.”

The main objective of the rules is to prevent “digital discrimination of access” as expressed in section 60506 of the infrastructure bill. The rules would also empower the FCC to conduct investigations pertaining to these forms of discrimination. Enforcement of the rules could lead to unspecified fines.

“To implement section 60506 … the Commission would adopt rules to establish a framework to facilitate equal access to broadband internet access service by preventing digital discrimination of access to that service based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion and national origin,” Carr wrote in a statement opposing the rules on Monday.

The rules would enable the government to regulate “how [internet service providers (ISPs)] allocate capital and where they build, to the services that consumers can purchase; from the profits that ISPs can realize and how they market and advertise services, to the discounts and promotions that consumers can receive,” Carr added. “Talk about central planning.”

Moreover, if the vote passes, the FCC will almost certainly take advantage of the new power, Carr told the DCNF.

“We’re seizing all this control and the government does not have a track record of seizing control and then sitting on it and not finding some way to exercise it,” he said.

The rules could also lead to subjective enforcement because of their vagueness, Carr explained.

“If you build broadband anywhere, you’re potentially liable for having not built it everywhere,” he told the DCNF. “If you don’t build broadband anywhere, you’re potentially liable for not doing that. And so it’s a total Kafkaesque regime. It leaves practically unfettered power in the hands of the administrative state with no clarity or path to compliance for the private sector.”

Moreover, there is “no ceiling on the level of potential fines,” Carr wrote. He told the DCNF it could therefore lead to millions of dollars in penalties for noncompliance.

Carr also referenced a House Judiciary Committee report published on Monday which highlighted instances of internet censorship by the federal government, drawing a link between this censorship and the proposed rules.

“This particular decision is part of a broader effort by the administration to exercise control over the internet,” Carr told the DCNF. “It’s an adoption of the view that the government should be sitting over the shoulders peering in and second-guessing every single decision that’s made about the internet.”

The FCC also made a substantial move toward reestablishing net neutrality in October by voting in favor of a notice of proposed rulemaking. Net neutrality rules mandate that ISPs provide equal access to all websites and content providers at the same rates and speeds, irrespective of their size or content.

The White House and FCC did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

JASON COHEN

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr Says Net Neutrality Debate Is ‘All Over,’ Real Threat Is Big Tech

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.