The Guardian reports FCC chair Brendan Carr was a member for about a decade of a Midtown Alcoholics Anonymous group based in the Washington DC area that former members say operated like a rogue fellowship and that some former members compared to a "cult." Carr joined in 1996 at about age 17 and appears to have remained a member for roughly nine years, including while he attended law school; a recorded Midtown speech from 2005 has him discussing his sobriety and referencing his last semester of law school. Former Midtown members told the Guardian that the group was led by Michael Quinones, who died in 2007, and that Quinones exercised controlling influence over members' lives, including where they lived, worked, and studied. Multiple former members alleged that teenage girls and young women were coerced into sexual relationships with older Midtown members and described forced relationships, restrictive diets, and psychological manipulation; one former member said she believes her experience could be described as sex trafficking. The Guardian based its investigation on interviews with 14 former Midtown members, contemporaneous recordings of Midtown meetings, and photographs. People who knew Carr during those years told the Guardian they did not believe he was among the predators and described him as providing a safe respite; the FCC spokesperson said Carr did not engage in any of the allegedly illegal or abusive conduct and that any suggestion he knew of such conduct would be false. The spokesperson did not answer questions about how Carr would describe his relationship with Quinones.
