Republicans Expose FTC Dysfunction Under Chair Lina Khan in New Video
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House Judiciary Committee and Congresswoman Harriet Hageman (R-WY) released a video highlighting abuse of power, misuse of resources, and culture of fear under the tenure of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan.
The Committee recently released an interim staff report detailing mismanagement, waste, and abuse of government resources by senior leadership at the FTC—specifically Chair Khan, her direct staff, and the Bureau of Competition Front Office.
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In Case You Missed It
Wall Street Journal Editorial Board | February 23, 2024
Perhaps you’ve read the stories that in a second term Donald Trump plans to purge much of the federal bureaucracy. We doubt he’d succeed, but has the press corps been watching Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan? She’s setting quite the precedent for Trump II.
That’s the clear conclusion from internal communications obtained by a House Judiciary Committee investigation into Ms. Khan’s agency. Let’s just say she won’t win manager of the year. President Biden broke political norms by naming her as Chair immediately following her Senate confirmation. Unlike her predecessors, the 34-year-old had no administrative experience at this or any other agency, and it shows.
Ms. Khan's behavior is related to her self-described mission to overturn decades of FTC practice and law. Toward that end she's centralized power in an inner circle of her appointees to rewrite the modern consumer-welfare antitrust standard. One of her first moves was a party-line vote in 2021 that empowered her to control subpoenas and investigations without consulting other commissioners.
It's important to understand how unusual this is. Agencies like the FTC weren't established to be part of an Administration like, say, the Energy Department. They are supposed to be independent, and as such have commissioners of both parties.
The FTC in particular has been known for its competent staff under chairmen of either party. Jon Leibowitz was chairman under Barack Obama and Tim Muris under George W. Bush, and they had different priorities. But they both followed modern antitrust law and relied on expert staff. Ms. Khan has turned all that on its head as she pursues her antitrust revolution, as internal emails show.
One manager (names and dates are omitted) wrote in an email to the FTC's chief of staff that he sensed "outside influences ... have an undue impact on [FTC] priorities, investigation management, and enforcement decisions," warning that the agency "should never make an enforcement-related decision for the sake of PR." "Outside influences" seems to mean leftwing lobbying groups.
Ms. Khan wants to appear "aggressive," the manager added, but she is acting
"with little regard for the consequences of losing in a way that negatively affects the enforcement agenda (i.e., bad facts that can result in really bad precedents that haunt us for years)."
Another manager suggested in an email that the "Chair views the staff as the tool to implement her agenda" even though "staff conducts investigations with expertise and thoroughness, and they are talented, tenacious litigators[.]" Career staff are supposed to implement senior leadership's agenda, but Ms. Khan denigrated their judgment, according to staff emails.
Another manager implored senior leaders to pursue "enforcement actions only when they are clearly justified." And another wrote that "it sometimes feels like we are running down marginal theories." That concern has proven to be right.
The federal courts have rejected the Khan FTC's most prominent cases-against the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard and Meta-Within Unlimited mergers.
Yet Ms. Khan ignored internal warnings. She is "kept in a bubble and do[es]n't know what's going on at the agency," one manager wrote in an email, adding that "the people who communicate with [Chair Khan] most are afraid to tell [her] anything [she doesn't] want to hear."
Some staff think failure in court may even be Ms. Khan's goal. As one wrote: "I'm not sure being successful (or doing things well) is a shared goal, as the Chair wants to show that we can't meet our mission mandate without legislative change." This isn't the role of the FTC, which is supposed to follow the law that Congress has already written.
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It's no surprise that the agency's staff morale has plummeted. "Tons of great people have left/are leaving/are thinking about leaving," one manager wrote in an email.
The annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey shows that FTC staff respect for senior leaders and belief in their integrity have plunged under Ms. Khan. In 2020, the last year of the Trump Administration, 83% of FTC employees said they had a high level of respect for senior leaders. That fell under Ms. Khan to 49% in 2021, and 44% in 2022, before rebounding modestly to 53% in 2023.
Ms. Khan has achieved her goal of shaking up the agency, but not for the better. The report's findings show how Ms. Khan has subordinated the FTC's statutory mission of consumer protection to her personal progressive agenda. Our guess is that the Trump transition team is watching for pointers.