GoKawiilAn advocacy group trying to investigate DOGE’s influence on the Federal Communications Commission accused the FCC of failing to comply with a public records request and of concealing Chairman Brendan Carr’s use of the Signal messaging service.
“The evidence clearly demonstrates that the FCC has acted in bad faith by withholding documents responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request,” journalist Nina Burleigh and advocacy group Frequency Forward said in a filing yesterday in US District Court for the District of Columbia. “The FCC acted in bad faith when it redefined the search criteria without notice to Plaintiffs or this Court. Further, the FCC acted in bad faith by concealing the fact that the Chairman Carr has a Signal account on a phone he uses to conduct government business.”
Burleigh and Frequency Forward sued the FCC last year, alleging that it violated the Freedom of Information Act by wrongfully withholding agency records. In August 2025, a federal judge ordered the FCC to produce documents and criticized it for a “vague and uninformative” response to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs filed the initial FoIA request in February 2025 for an investigation into how DOGE’s activities at the FCC may have created conflicts of interest related to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Starlink, which are seeking various FCC licenses and authorizations.
“The evidence strongly suggests that Musk bought his way into the White House and to obtain his position as the de-facto head of DOGE, and that he had used his government authority and access to information to earn huge profits for himself and his companies,” plaintiffs said yesterday. “Plaintiffs’ FoIA request seeks documents that shed light on the relationship between the FCC, Musk as regulator and Musk and his companies as regulated entities.”
Burleigh and Frequency Forward asked the court to deny an FCC motion for summary judgment, order the agency to produce all responsive documents within a week, and allow the plaintiffs to file discovery requests. Their filing accused the FCC of having “wasted a year of the Court’s time and frustrated Plaintiffs’ efforts to timely review critical records.”