Outgoing FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker says she followed the legal and ethics rules in her actions leading up to the decision to leave the FCC for a job at Comcast-NBCUniversal.
Baker released a statement Friday more fully explaining the events leading to her decision to leave the commission for the lobbyist position. She said in a statement Friday that she sought counsel from the FCC general counsel’s office throughout the process, and that the job became available to her after the merger review had ended. “Not once” did the company approach her about working as a lobbyist, she stated.
House members of both parties have questioned whether Baker — the more junior Republican commissioner at the FCC — was considering the job while also reviewing the merger of the two companies, which she voted to approve. “She may have acted completely in the right, but being legal doesn’t make it right,” a spokesman for Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash. told The Hill.
“Not once in my entire tenure as a commissioner had anyone at Comcast or NBCUniversal approached me about potential employment,” stated Baker, who added that she recused herself on April 18 from any matters involving Comcast or NBCUniversal and has complied with both legal and ethics laws. Baker stated she plans to leave the agency “as soon as I am able” to ensure an orderly shut-down of her FCC office.
