Sohn Supporters Push Back on Reports Tying Her to EFF Actions
FCC nominee Gigi Sohn's supporters on and off Capitol Hill said recent reports on her role as an Electronic Frontier Foundation board member are baseless and discriminatory. The Senate Commerce Committee, meanwhile, appeared likely to hold its third confirmation hearing on Sohn sometime next week or the following one, despite calls from panel Republicans for a delay until March (see 2301260068), lobbyists told us. A hearing next week would be just days after Senate Commerce’s planned Thursday organizational meeting, which was considered the hurdle delaying progress on Sohn into February (see 2301200058). The executive session will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
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The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) released a statement Friday citing a Fox News report on Sohn that highlighted EFF’s opposition to the 2018 Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (see 1806290044). Sohn wasn't a member of EFF’s board when the group opposed the measures. In the statement, the NRSC urged Senate Democrats potentially facing tough 2024 re-election fights -- Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana -- to "do the right thing and oppose" Sohn's confirmation. Breitbart and the U.K.-based Daily Mail noted Sohn was on the EFF board in 2020 when the group gave an award to a sex worker affiliated with OnlyFans, Mistress Blunt, and described Blunt's services. An EFF spokesperson said Sohn wasn't involved in the group's decision to give Blunt the award.
"It is outrageous that the FCC has gone without a full slate of commissioners while" Sohn's nomination "languishes amidst lies and homophobia," Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said Friday: The FCC's work "is too important for this nomination to be delayed any further." The Senate "should confirm her as soon as possible," he said: As a Commerce member, "I will continue to fight back against baseless attacks and push for swift confirmation."
Consultant Preston Padden, a former lobbyist for Disney and News Corp., wrote Senate Commerce leaders Monday in Sohn's defense. "I fear that this" committee, like Sohn, "is in danger of falling victim to the worst, and most cynical and baseless smear campaign ever waged against a nominee to serve on the FCC," Padden told Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and other panel members. Sohn’s "only sin is that she roots for the underdog and for consumers. As a result, some" major communications industry companies "have stooped to lows never before seen to smear" her, including planting reports "alleging that she is against Native Americans, against Hispanics, against rural communities, against police and that she is connected with illicit sex workers." Those reports are "rubbish" and "are beneath the dignity of this Committee," he said: "This is 'Tabloid Trash' at its worst, all brought to you, I believe, by agents of some of the country’s biggest" cable companies and ISPs.