The suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel by Disney-owned ABC has sparked a heated debate about free speech, bringing in one of the vocal champions of the crypto legal space, John E. Deaton.
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission criticized Kimmel for his comments regarding the political views of the man suspected of killing the conservative activist, Charlie Kirk.
Deaton, who is known for defending XRP and its holders during the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit , criticized MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes for saying Kimmel's suspension was the "most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors."
"Disney is not a state actor,"Deaton countered on X, adding that there have been "far greater examples of attacks on the First Amendment by state actors under Biden than Jimmy Kimmel."
He addressed federal lawsuits that say Biden administration agencies pressured social media companies to censor "disfavored speech" on topics like COVID-19 and election integrity. In these cases, courts found that the First Amendment might have been broken.
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Deaton is not just a crypto supporter who ran as a Republican Senate candidate in Massachusetts in 2024. He is also an attorney who represented XRP token holders in Ripple's lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ripple has already donated millions of dollars in super PAC to help him run against Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is a strong critic of crypto.
Wyoming Senator agrees
One of the most well-known proponents of Bitcoin in Congress, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), also linked the controversy to cryptocurrency's difficulties obtaining banking services.
" Americans are debanked for buying Bitcoin or working in a disfavored industry,"she wrote on X , adding that financial exclusion of crypto users is part of a larger pattern of suppressing dissent. She compared Kimmel's suspension to the firing of public employees for refusing COVID-19 vaccines, claiming it was the erosion of First Amendment rights.
For the digital asset industry, Kimmel's suspension has become more than a late-night controversy.
Ripple's lawyer, a pro-Bitcoin senator, and crypto influencers are all drawing parallels between speech suppression and regulatory crackdowns on digital assets.
With Ripple funding advocacy and Lummis linking Bitcoin to basic freedoms, the Kimmel debate shows crypto's push for fairness is tied to wider questions of expression.
Related: What are tokenized stocks? Explained
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Sep 19, 2025, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
