Washington, DC - Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, blasted the nomination of Gigi B. Sohn to serve as a Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ahead of next week’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
“This will be the second time that Gigi Sohn will testify before the committee,” Yoes said. “What has changed? She didn’t have enough support last Congress and I don’t think she does this time either. She is completely unacceptable and should never have been renominated.”
Ms. Sohn was renominated by the President on 3 January after she failed to get enough support to confirm her in the previous Congress. Ms. Sohn is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which has extreme anti-police views on law enforcement technology and lawful access to digital evidence. The FOP has also taken issue with Ms. Sohn’s social media and public policy stances which indicate a deep animus toward law enforcement officers and the rule of law.
“Our concerns about her views on ‘going dark’ and lawful access have been thoroughly documented,” Yoes said. “Technology companies have responsibilities when it comes to public safety, which include cooperating with lawful and legitimate law enforcement orders, but the EFF has been the leader in efforts to thwart lawful access to digital data and evidence. Public safety is the paramount responsibility of every governmental official, and Ms. Sohn’s commitment to end-to-end encryption puts public safety in jeopardy.”
The FOP first weighed in against her nomination in December 2021 in a letter to the Commerce Committee. The organization sent similar letters to the committee in February 2022 and January 2023 as well as a dozen letters to individual Members of the Senate explaining the FOP’s opposition.
“Also, how can you reconcile that Ms. Sohn is a board member of the EFF, which believes Edward Snowden to be a patriot,” asked Yoes. “Mr. Snowden—now a Russian citizen—has been charged with three Federal felonies—including two counts of violating the Espionage Act. He is currently a wanted fugitive. As far as we know, she has not distanced herself from the EFF on Snowden. How is her nomination receiving any serious consideration?”
“We believe that a vote to favorably report Ms. Sohn’s nomination next week would show a complete disregard for the hard-working men and women of law enforcement who are simply trying to do their jobs and protect the public,” Yoes concluded. “This is not the nominee that Americans want serving them on the Federal Communications Commission.”