President Biden's nominee for the Federal Communications Commission, Gigi Sohn, had her third confirmation hearing since Biden first chose her in 2021, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, noted that during a process marked by controversy, Sohn made political contributions to senators who would ultimately be voting on her nomination.
Cruz pointed out during Tuesday's hearing that in the 15 months since Sohn's initial nomination, she made a dozen donations to Democratic senators who would be deciding her fate.
"I've been in the Senate ten years. I have never seen a nominee make contributions to senators while your nomination is pending. I've never seen that once," Cruz said. "I had my staff search the records. If we could find anyone in the Trump administration who had done that. My staff was unable to find that."
Cruz then asked Sohn if she thinks it was "poor judgment" on her part to make these donations to Senate Democrats during her nomination process.
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"Senator, I'm a citizen who just wanted to participate in the Democratic process," Sohn responded. "The answer is no."
Sohn also pointed out that the amounts of her donations were relatively small, with a total of $1,000 split between 12 senators. Over the course of her whole life she has contributed $32,000.
During the hearing, Cruz also pointed out Sohn's support for the left-wing group Fight for the Future, which has accused senators from both parties of being corrupt based on donations they have accepted. Cruz identified one tweet from the group that included an image of a group holding a sign saying, "We're going to buy a senator," next to an oversized check made out to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
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Sohn's nomination to be an FCC commissioner has also come in question due to her past role on the board of Locast, a company that streamed over-the-air broadcast television. When she joined, the company was embroiled in litigation from the major TV networks for alleged copyright infringement. Locast faced up to $32 million in damages, but the sides ultimately settled for just $700,000.
Cruz said the reason why Sohn had to go for a second confirmation a year ago after her first in 2021 was because she had not disclosed the agreement to the Senate Commerce Committee before her initial appearance.
After a February 2022 hearing, the committee was split 14-14 on advancing her nomination. While her nomination was advanced to the full Senate, no vote took place when Democrats could not muster enough votes to confirm her. Since then, Democrats picked up a seat in the Senate with the 2022 elections, which may be enough to get Sohn the job.
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