The House Judiciary Committee has released a damning two-part report on FTC Chair Lina Khan’s tenure, highlighting her disregard for legal norms, politicization of the agency, and troubling collaboration with European regulators to undermine U.S. businesses. The report also details how Khan used the FTC to target Elon Musk and intimidate journalists who exposed government-backed censorship.
Market Institute Senior Fellow Norm Singleton has a new article in Real Clear Markets breaking down this new report.
“One reason the charge that Donald Trump and his allies are fascist does not resonate with the American people is that many of those leveling it have themselves supported policies that can be described as fascist. Take Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan. A two-part report from the House Judiciary Committee on Khan’s tenure as FTC Chair shows how she has abused her power and, on at least one occasion, acted in a manner that can fairly be described as fascist.
The first part of the report, The Federal Trade Commission Under Chair Lina Khan: Undue Biden-Harris White House Influence and Sweeping Destruction of Agency Norms, focuses on how Khan “undermined the FTC’s mission through a restless violation of legal, procedural, and traditional norms.” The report discusses how Khan wasted taxpayer resources by bringing weak cases that she knew, or should have known, had little chance of succeeding. The report also discusses how the FTC’s “cooperation” with European antitrust regulators harms U.S. businesses.
The report also accuses Khan of politicizing the FTC. For example, it discusses her membership in President Biden’s “Strike Force on Illegal and Unfair Pricing.” The strike force is an effort to scapegoat “greedy” businesses for price inflation.
Part two of the report focuses on Khan’s weaponization of the FTC against free-speech advocate and Biden-Harris critic Elon Musk. Khan used Twitter’s 2011 consent decree with the FTC as her weapon. The 2011 decree required that Twitter submit to independent audits of its privacy and data security protocols. In 2019, Twitter reported a consent decree violation regarding the accidental use of data for advertising without user consent. As a result, the FTC began working on revising and strengthening the agreement.
In 2021, a newly installed FTC Chair Khan asked the agency to reopen negotiations with Twitter on revising the consent decree. Khan initially did not make finalizing the deal a time-sensitive priority. That changed in 2022—when she decided the agency needed to approve the new consent decree ASAP. Khan was so concerned about getting the consent decree approved that she scheduled a vote before most commissioners had a chance to study it.
When asked why Khan was in a hurry to approve the consent decree, her counsel said the quiet part out loud: Khan wanted the revised consent decree approved before Musk took control of Twitter. Thus, Khan wanted to approve the new consent decree—which gives the FTC authority to collect material regarding the company’s data, privacy, and other policies—right before it was purchased by someone whose explicit goal was to challenge the online censorship promoted by the Biden Administration.”
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