Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr slammed a multistate effort to block Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, saying, “This really isn’t a legitimate antitrust case.”

He voiced doubt Wednesday that a coalition of 12 state attorneys general led by California will prevail in their challenge to the $110 billion deal.

“I doubt it,” Carr said when asked whether the states’ lawsuit would succeed during the Hill Nation Summit in Washington, DC.

He cited news reports that California had considered dropping its antitrust litigation if CNN were spun off from the combined company.

“There was a story that broke a couple weeks ago that said that California was floating the idea, according to news reports, of dropping all of the antitrust litigation if there was one condition that was met, which is that the purchase involved the spinning off of CNN,” Carr said.

“Now, I don’t understand what antitrust theory you have that says there’s a problem with this acquisition that is made or broken based on one cable channel being included,” he added.

“So I think that’s a bit of a tell that this really isn’t a legitimate antitrust case, but ultimately that’ll be up for the courts to decide.”

The comments came two days after a coalition of 12 state attorneys general, led by California, sued to block Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The lawsuit could prove costly even if it doesn’t ultimately stop the merger.

Under the agreement, WBD shareholders become entitled to an additional “ticking” payment if the transaction closes after Sept. 30, increasing the cost of the deal.