UPDATED: Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC, warned Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro that the agency has been engaged in a “coordinated campaign of censorship and control” against ABC, citing a series of investigations against the network.

In a letter to D’Amaro on Monday, Gomez accused the agency, led by Trump-appointed Chairman Brendan Carr, of a “weaponization” of its “authority as a federal regulator” that is “aimed at pressuring a free and independent press and all media into submission.”

“You are not the first target of this campaign, and you will not be the last,” Gomez wrote.

Her letter comes several days after Disney accused the FCC under Carr of chilling speech and violating the First Amendment, in response to an agency crackdown on the Equal Time Rule. That has included an investigation of a network-owned station after it aired an appearance by James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, on The View.

Gomez praised Disney/ABC for pushing back against Carr, but in her letter she also laid out why she thinks the company has become among the regulated broadcasters who have found themselves the focus of agency inquiries and investigations.

She cited Disney’s decision in December, 2024, to settle Donald Trump‘s defamation lawsuit against the network and This Week host George Stephanopoulos. The network agreed to pay $16 million to settle the case, filed by Trump after Stephanopoulos claimed on the show that the then-former president had been found liable to rape by a jury. In fact, the jury found Trump liable for sexual assault.

“Whatever the legal calculations behind that decision, its effect was immediate and unmistakeable,” Gomez wrote.” It told this administration that pressure works. It told every other company watching that capitulation was an option. And it opened the door to every action that has followed.”

She added, “The settlement did not buy you peace. It only bought you time.”

Soon after, Gomez noted, Carr revived a complaint against ABC over the way that its broadcast of the 2024 presidential debate was moderated. He also launched an investigation of Disney over its diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

The latter investigation, she suggested, exceeds the bounds of the agency’s authority. She cited a D.C. Circuit ruling that “the FCC is not the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission…and a license renewal proceeding is not a Title VII suit.”

Nevertheless, Carr has ordered ABC owned and operated stations to file for early license renewal this month, years ahead of schedule. In the highly unusual order, Carr cited the DEI investigation. But suspicions over the agency’s motivations were quickly raised, because the order came days just after Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump called on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel.

In her letter, Gomez wrote that the “process is the punishment,” citing the lack of resolution to the various investigations and proceedings.

“These investigations are often announced with much fanfare, pursued selectively against perceived critics of this administration, and most are destined never to be brought to any enforcement conclusion that could face judicial review,” Gomez wrote.

A spokespersons for Disney had no comment. The FCC did not immediately return a request for comment. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the letter.

The Center for American Rights filed the complaint over the ABC presidential debate and has written to the FCC over Kimmel and The View.

The group’s president, Daniel Suhr, said in response to Gomez’s letter, “It is not in the public interest for ABC to operate as an arm of the Democratic Party. ABC is not entitled to a permanent megaphone to blast its preferred politics at the American people, and Chairman Carr’s reviews are about nothing more than enforcing longstanding laws.”

In January, the FCC issued new guidance over the equal time rule, which requires broadcasters that feature a political candidate on their airwaves offer comparable time to rivals, if it is requested.

For decades, talk shows like The View have operated under the assumption that they are exempt from the rule, like news and news event programming. Among other things, ABC argued that it was being singled out for regulatory action while ignoring radio talk shows, which also are covered by the rule, and routinely feature candidates. Broadcast talk radio is dominated by conservative hosts.

In its filing last week, ABC said that “some may dislike certain—or even most—of the viewpoints expressed on The View or similar shows. Such dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views.”

The network said, “The danger is that the government will simply decide which perspectives to regulate and which to leave undisturbed. In fact, while the Commission now questions The View’s decades-long exemption, it has not expressed any inclination to apply a similar interpretation of the equal opportunities rule to other broadcasters, including the many voices—conservative and liberal—on broadcast radio.”

An FCC spokesperson said of the ABC filing, “Decades ago, Congress passed a law that generally prohibits broadcast television programs from putting a thumb on the scale in favor of one political candidate over another,. Specifically, Congress put protections in place to ensure that covered programs offer legally qualified candidates for office (both Republican and Democrat) equal time on the public airwaves.  The equal time law encourages more speech and empowers voters to decide the outcome of elections.”