FOIAengine: News Organizations Pursue Evidence in Trump vs. Kimmel Feud
A burst of late-April Freedom of Information Act requests saw multiple news organizations converging on the same question: when the Federal Communications Commission initiated an early review of Disney’s ABC station licenses shortly after comedian Jimmy Kimmel joked about First Lady Melania Trump, was the agency undertaking routine broadcast oversight, or were regulators pursuing a political agenda?
On April 23, Kimmel used his late-night show on ABC to perform a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner monologue. He described Melania Trump as “so beautiful,” then added that she had “a glow like an expectant widow.” Kimmel later said the line was a “very light roast joke” about the age gap between the president and first lady, not a reference to violence.
The remark quickly became a political controversy, particularly after a security breach and alleged assassination attempt at the actual White House Correspondents’ Dinner two days later. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called Kimmel’s comments “completely deranged;” President Trump urged ABC to fire Kimmel; and Melania Trump wrote on X that “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
Within days the FCC took what some called a retaliatory move.
On April 28, the FCC issued an order requiring ABC to file early license-renewal applications for its television stations within 30 days. The order said calling in the licenses early was “essential” to the FCC’s ongoing investigation and would allow the agency to determine whether the broadcaster had been meeting its public-interest obligations more broadly.
The timing was striking, coming just days after the April 23 segment. But FCC Chair Brendan Carr has said the review was not about Kimmel’s joke. At an April 30 press conference, Carr said the decision was tied to Disney and ABC’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices, not the content of Kimmel’s program.
“This is a decision that we made inside this building,” Carr said, adding that “there was no pressure from the outside.” Carr also said, “The FCC should not operate as the speech police.”
There was immediate skepticism from the left. Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez called the Disney license fight a “pretext” and warned that the review could chill other broadcasters. Congressional Democrats accused Carr in an April 30 letter of using the FCC “as a weapon to punish protected speech.”
Within days, three news organizations submitted FOIA requests for information relating to the Kimmel controversy, according to FOIAengine, which tracks FOIA requests in as close to real time as their availability allows. Each was pursuing a different aspect of the same story.
The first request sought evidence of White House intervention. On April 29, B.J. Mendelson of Hudson Valley’s Monroe Gazette in Monroe, New York, sought “all communications” between FCC Chair Brendan Carr and White House staff containing the keywords “Jimmy Kimmel,” “ABC,” “ABC Network” and “Disney.” The request covered emails, phone logs, calendar appointments and other records.
A second request on April 30 sought information about viewer complaints to the FCC. Ella Lee of The Hill asked for “the total number of complaints received by the FCC,” the complaints themselves, and a breakdown of when they arrived. It also asked how many complaints were submitted within 24 hours of the broadcast and how many came after public commentary following the April 25 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
A third request on April 30 by Reese Dunklin of ProPublica appeared designed to reconstruct the internal agency chronology by seeking internal FCC traffic that could show when agency officials began discussing Kimmel, ABC, and early renewal. The request sought emails sent to and from a list of FCC officials, using a long set of search terms. The keywords included “joke,” “glow,” “widow,” “FLOTUS,” “Melania,” “first lady,” “Kimmel,” “Jimmy,” “fired,” “order,” “early renewal,” “chairman,” “Brendan,” “Carr,” “Disney” and “ABC,” along with call signs and facility numbers associated with ABC stations.
Two earlier requests provide additional context regarding scrutiny of FCC Chairman Carr. On April 9, Dana Mattioli of The Wall Street Journal requested Carr’s detailed daily calendars, meeting attachments, briefing papers and phone logs from January 20, 2025, forward. On April 17, Maddy Varner of Wired requested all agency-wide announcements sent by Carr since January 20, 2025.
Those requests were not limited to Kimmel or ABC, and they predated the April 23 joke. But in hindsight, they reflect the same broader reporting environment. National outlets were already looking at Carr’s leadership, communications and internal messaging before the ABC license issue erupted.
Taken together, these requests demonstrate how reporters can quickly identify different factual lines of inquiry — viewer complaints, White House contacts, and internal FCC deliberations — for gaining insight into an agency’s actions.
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Randy E. Miller, co-creator of FOIAengine, is a Washington lawyer, publisher, and former government official. He has developed several online information products and was a partner at Hogan Lovells, where he founded the firm’s Brussels office and represented clients on international regulatory matters. Miller also has served as a White House trade lawyer, Senior Legal Adviser to the U.S. Mission to the World Trade Organization, policy director to Senator Bob Dole, and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Yale and Georgetown Law. FOIAengine is a product of PoliScio Analytics (PoliScio.com), a venture specializing in U.S. political and governmental research, co-founded by Miller and Washington journalist John A. Jenkins.
Write to Randy E. Miller at randy@poliscio.com.