With Democrats set to control both the House and the Senate, major media executives including David Ellison and Lachlan Murdoch are likely to face congressional inquiries and possible hearings focused on their business deals and relationships with Donald Trump.
The shift in congressional power is expected to bring closer scrutiny of prominent media moguls whose companies have pursued significant transactions in recent years. Ellison, Murdoch, and other industry figures are among those anticipated to draw attention over the nature of those deals and the extent of any ties to Trump. Lawmakers could use their majority status to examine whether political connections influenced regulatory approvals, financing, or other aspects of the transactions.
A source working for one Democratic senator told The Hollywood Reporter that members of Congress in both houses are eager to haul executives in to ask about their deals and any rumored quid pro quos, with Skydance’s mega-deal for WBD and the ongoing Fox-Roku deal drawing particular scrutiny, as is the TikTok U.S. sale to Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX.
Also of interest are the deals big tech companies like Google, Meta, OpenAI and SpaceX have with the government for data centers, AI, and other services, and, yes, perhaps Amazon’s deal for the Melania Trump documentary, which its chairman Jeff Bezos framed as a “very wise business decision.”
Skydance’s move to raise cash from Middle East sovereign wealth funds and others like SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also of interest.
Such oversight would mark a change from the current environment, where investigations into media consolidation and executive relationships have been more limited. Inquiries could involve requests for documents, testimony, or public hearings, though the precise scope and timeline remain unclear. The focus is expected to center on deals involving major media properties and the role, if any, that relationships with the Trump administration or campaign played in those arrangements.