D.C. Memo: Simington Keeps His Word, Refuses to Support FCC Fines

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FCC Fines: The FCC yesterday imposed a $6 million fine on political consultant Steve Kramer for making illegal robocalls using deepfake, AI-generated voice cloning technology to impersonate President Biden to tell voters not to vote in the New Hampshire primary in January. The FCC also fined several pirate radio station operators. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr voted for the fines, but his GOP colleague – FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington – did not. Simington's dissents were consistent with his Sept. 6 statement that because of "new and controlling Supreme Court precedent, the FCC’s authority to assess monetary forfeitures as it traditionally has done is unclear." Going forward, Simington said he was "obligated to dissent from any decision purporting to impose a monetary forfeiture." Simington was relying on the Supreme Court's June ruling in SEC v. Jarkesy that defendants were entitled to a jury trial under the 7th Amendment before needing to pay fines handed out in administrative proceedings. At a press conference after the FCC's public meeting, Carr said he did not believe Jarkesy applied to the new fines. "The particular enforcement matters that we voted on today to me we not only had authority, but in my reading it wasn't clear to me that Jarkesy would require a different outcome in those cases," Carr said. He agreed with Simington that the FCC should take a look “at how the Jarkesy decision potentially clips the wings of our enforcement authority."