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Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan faced mounting congressional scrutiny Thursday over allegations she has ignored lawmakers and wasted taxpayer money in pursuit of her personal agenda.
The House Judiciary Committee grilled the Biden appointee, whose tenure at the FTC has driven away many employees and all GOP commissioners, amid questions about the politicization of the regulatory agency’s actions.
Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, ripped Ms. Khan at the hearing for bypassing Congress and allegedly harassing the social media platform Twitter with requests for information since Elon Musk’s takeover.
www.washingtontimes.com
Here is the full hearing:
Opening statement:
0:32
thank the gentleman we're getting that today's hearing with uh
0:38
as we normally do with opening statements and then we'll get right to our witness and we appreciate Ms Khan being with us a chair con being with us
0:44
today um at a speech in Berlin in 2022 chair Khan told an audience that the challenges
0:50
facing antitrust today were quote the result of a choice made 40 years ago to
0:56
follow the misguided philosophy of people like Robert Bork in other words according to chair Khan the prevailing view over the last 40 years a bipartisan
1:04
View shared over more than 20 congress's six presidential administrations and adopted and developed by all 50 states in their
1:11
enforcement is now somehow wrong consider that over those 40 years the US economy Grew From about a three trillion
1:17
dollar annual economy to 25 trillion and was the single greatest period of wealth
1:22
creation in human history but everyone who oversaw economic policy for those four decades according to the
1:28
chair was wrong she knows better she's trying to usher in a radical departure from the Norms
1:34
that made the American economy great to a system where her and her cronies have unchecked power over business practices
1:40
in our country untethered from any reasonable reading of precedent or statutory law
1:46
so if you should ask now over the two years into her tenure how has her approach to any trust been playing out
1:52
as she heads one of those critical agencies in our government the short answer is that it's been a
1:59
disaster she's pushed investigations to burden parties with vague and costly demands without any substantive
2:04
follow-through or frankly Logic for the request themselves she centralized the decision making at the commission within
2:10
her office eliminated any pretext of due process or transparency in that decision making
2:16
her approach is best characterized as one of intimidation followed by inaction the best example of this
2:22
which was only brought to light because of our work on the weaponization select committee was her targeted harassment of
2:28
Twitter after miss Mr musk bought the company in following pressure from Democrat Senators left-wing activist
2:35
groups the FTC issued over 350 requests for
2:40
information from Twitter these requests included asking for every communication about Mr musk inside the
2:48
company the most troubling for information about Twitter's work with journalists working to shed light on
2:54
governments on the government-driven censorship practices that existed at and I think in
3:00
some cases still exist at Big Tech in fact we got a great Court decision last week who talked about this how pervasive
3:06
this effort was and a preliminary injunction from that federal court in the Western District of Louisiana just
3:12
this morning though in a filing in federal court we have learned that the situation is actually even worse than we
3:19
could have imagined this wasn't harassment it was a Shakedown the FTC as as his common practice
3:26
pursuant to the consent order required Twitter to hire an independent Assessor
3:31
an independent assessor whose legal obligation is to be truly independent and objective not for one party or
3:39
another well it turns out objectivity was not what the Federal Trade Commission was
3:45
interested in here here's what the filing said about Ernst young the independent assessor hired in
3:51
this matter quote the FTC was so adamant with Ernst young
3:56
conveying that this is absolutely what you will do and this is going to occur and you'll produce a report at the end
4:03
of the day that would be negative about Twitter that senior Ernst young leaders feared
4:09
that if Ernst young resigned as the independent assessor the FTC would take exception
4:15
to their withdrawal and create other challenges for Ernst young over time
4:20
this is not conjecture from Twitter this is from sworn testimony of the independent assessor in the deposition
4:26
itself taken just last month this is outrageous this is unacceptable it's the kind of behavior that occurs in
4:33
banana republics not in the United States of America and so it's no wonder chair Khan has no
4:39
interest in providing information to the people's representatives in the Congress to the people on this committee when we
4:45
ask for it to date the FTC is not fully complied with the single request for documents from this committee and
4:51
because of her mismanagement not even her own staff is impressed with chairman Khan's leadership
4:57
in 2020 the last year under Trump the Trump Administration 87 percent of FTC employees agreed that senior leaders
5:03
maintain high standards under Terror Khan that figure fell to 53 in 2021 is
5:09
declined even further to 49 percent in 2022. in 2020 83 percent of surveyed FTC
5:16
employees agreed that there that they have a high level of respect for the FTC senior leaders again under the chairman
5:22
that figure plummeted to 49 percent and these numbers were before it was revealed recently
5:28
that the chair was advised by ftc's ethics Council to recuse herself from a major case
5:34
she did not recuse herself and then appears to have misled Congress about taking that advice
5:39
we have a lot of questions today to get through we look forward to the response from the chairman of the FTC
The House Judiciary Committee grilled the Biden appointee, whose tenure at the FTC has driven away many employees and all GOP commissioners, amid questions about the politicization of the regulatory agency’s actions.
Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, ripped Ms. Khan at the hearing for bypassing Congress and allegedly harassing the social media platform Twitter with requests for information since Elon Musk’s takeover.
FTC Chair Khan under fire for allegedly ignoring Congress, wasting taxpayer cash
Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan faced mounting congressional scrutiny Thursday over allegations she has ignored lawmakers and wasted taxpayer money in pursuit of her personal agenda.
www.washingtontimes.com
Here is the full hearing:
Opening statement:
0:32
thank the gentleman we're getting that today's hearing with uh
0:38
as we normally do with opening statements and then we'll get right to our witness and we appreciate Ms Khan being with us a chair con being with us
0:44
today um at a speech in Berlin in 2022 chair Khan told an audience that the challenges
0:50
facing antitrust today were quote the result of a choice made 40 years ago to
0:56
follow the misguided philosophy of people like Robert Bork in other words according to chair Khan the prevailing view over the last 40 years a bipartisan
1:04
View shared over more than 20 congress's six presidential administrations and adopted and developed by all 50 states in their
1:11
enforcement is now somehow wrong consider that over those 40 years the US economy Grew From about a three trillion
1:17
dollar annual economy to 25 trillion and was the single greatest period of wealth
1:22
creation in human history but everyone who oversaw economic policy for those four decades according to the
1:28
chair was wrong she knows better she's trying to usher in a radical departure from the Norms
1:34
that made the American economy great to a system where her and her cronies have unchecked power over business practices
1:40
in our country untethered from any reasonable reading of precedent or statutory law
1:46
so if you should ask now over the two years into her tenure how has her approach to any trust been playing out
1:52
as she heads one of those critical agencies in our government the short answer is that it's been a
1:59
disaster she's pushed investigations to burden parties with vague and costly demands without any substantive
2:04
follow-through or frankly Logic for the request themselves she centralized the decision making at the commission within
2:10
her office eliminated any pretext of due process or transparency in that decision making
2:16
her approach is best characterized as one of intimidation followed by inaction the best example of this
2:22
which was only brought to light because of our work on the weaponization select committee was her targeted harassment of
2:28
Twitter after miss Mr musk bought the company in following pressure from Democrat Senators left-wing activist
2:35
groups the FTC issued over 350 requests for
2:40
information from Twitter these requests included asking for every communication about Mr musk inside the
2:48
company the most troubling for information about Twitter's work with journalists working to shed light on
2:54
governments on the government-driven censorship practices that existed at and I think in
3:00
some cases still exist at Big Tech in fact we got a great Court decision last week who talked about this how pervasive
3:06
this effort was and a preliminary injunction from that federal court in the Western District of Louisiana just
3:12
this morning though in a filing in federal court we have learned that the situation is actually even worse than we
3:19
could have imagined this wasn't harassment it was a Shakedown the FTC as as his common practice
3:26
pursuant to the consent order required Twitter to hire an independent Assessor
3:31
an independent assessor whose legal obligation is to be truly independent and objective not for one party or
3:39
another well it turns out objectivity was not what the Federal Trade Commission was
3:45
interested in here here's what the filing said about Ernst young the independent assessor hired in
3:51
this matter quote the FTC was so adamant with Ernst young
3:56
conveying that this is absolutely what you will do and this is going to occur and you'll produce a report at the end
4:03
of the day that would be negative about Twitter that senior Ernst young leaders feared
4:09
that if Ernst young resigned as the independent assessor the FTC would take exception
4:15
to their withdrawal and create other challenges for Ernst young over time
4:20
this is not conjecture from Twitter this is from sworn testimony of the independent assessor in the deposition
4:26
itself taken just last month this is outrageous this is unacceptable it's the kind of behavior that occurs in
4:33
banana republics not in the United States of America and so it's no wonder chair Khan has no
4:39
interest in providing information to the people's representatives in the Congress to the people on this committee when we
4:45
ask for it to date the FTC is not fully complied with the single request for documents from this committee and
4:51
because of her mismanagement not even her own staff is impressed with chairman Khan's leadership
4:57
in 2020 the last year under Trump the Trump Administration 87 percent of FTC employees agreed that senior leaders
5:03
maintain high standards under Terror Khan that figure fell to 53 in 2021 is
5:09
declined even further to 49 percent in 2022. in 2020 83 percent of surveyed FTC
5:16
employees agreed that there that they have a high level of respect for the FTC senior leaders again under the chairman
5:22
that figure plummeted to 49 percent and these numbers were before it was revealed recently
5:28
that the chair was advised by ftc's ethics Council to recuse herself from a major case
5:34
she did not recuse herself and then appears to have misled Congress about taking that advice
5:39
we have a lot of questions today to get through we look forward to the response from the chairman of the FTC
