Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan faced a grilling from House Republicans as she testified before the Judiciary Committee Thursday.
During the Biden administration, the FTC under Khan’s leadership has been criticized by Republicans for a lack of due process and for opposing several mergers and acquisitions by U.S. corporations that courts have permitted to go ahead following review. GOP lawmakers also pressed Khan on the agency’s inquiries into Twitter following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, opened the hearing by noting, "She centralized the decision-making at the commission within her office, eliminating any pretext of due process or transparency in that decision-making. Her approach is best characterized as one of intimidation, followed by inaction.
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"The best example of this, which was only brought to light because of our work on the weaponization select committee, was her targeted harassment of Twitter after Mr. Musk bought the company. And following pressure from Democrat senators, left-wing activist groups, the FTC issued over 350 requests for information from Twitter," Jordan explained.
"These requests included asking for every communication about Mr. Musk inside the company. And, most troubling, for information about Twitter’s work with journalists working to shed light on the government-driven censorship practices that existed and, I think in some cases, still exist at Big Tech."
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Khan defended those actions when Jordan asked her why she was harassing Twitter, saying, "We’re squarely focused on the privacy and security implications of any decisions that may be made. As I noted, Twitter’s history with the FTC goes back over a decade where serious security and privacy lapses led to personal information being compromised.
"As you noted, Twitter today also has access to personal sensitive information. In 2022, we entered into a revised consent order because we found that Twitter, unfortunately, had been in violation of the prior consent order," Khan added.
"Whenever we have repeat offenders at the agency, we’re always thinking very hard about what we can be doing to prevent repeat violations as our revised order has even tighter privacy and security provisions. It was voted out unanimously at the commission, and we’ll continue to make sure that our orders are being followed and that companies are protecting people’s privacy and security."
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Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled that the FTC couldn’t block Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard in a $69 billion deal. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., asked Khan why the FTC objected to the proposed acquisition when the court rejected the FTC’s claims the acquisition would be anticompetitive.
"Why should Americans have faith in your judgment when this Biden-appointed judge says you are so far off the mark," Kiley asked.
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Khan replied that "this matter is still pending before the FTC in administrative adjudication. So I’m just going to be limited in what I can say about the merits. Our complaint lays out the staff’s view of what this merger would result in and why that would be a law violation."
The FTC filed an appeal of the decision in federal court Wednesday night.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., raised concerns about the FTC sending pre-consummation letters to businesses for transactions that the regulatory agency doesn’t have the time to fully investigate.
"Why should people trying to do regular business be punished?" Massie asked. "Because it’s taking you too long to do your job."
Khan said the law only gives the agency 30 days to review proposed deals, saying that can be a "very, very tight timeline" and that the regulator sends those letters to let the businesses know that there may be a problem with the pending transaction.
"We have heard from some businesses that if we don't act within that 30-day period, the takeaway for them is that there are no issues and there are no concerns," Khan said. "So we thought it was important to put business on notice to provide them clarity and transparency, that if there is a deal that we think raised concerns but we weren't able to act within the 30 days that we're putting them on notice about that again, to make sure that the market has clarity on it."
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Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., blasted the panel’s Republican members for their treatment of Khan, suggesting that the rough questioning was due to a lack of diversity on the GOP side of the aisle and the color of Khan’s skin given her Pakistani heritage.
"When we treat a witness who looks like you with the politics of personal destruction, and when we only attack witnesses who look like you with allegations of incompetence and a lack of ability to lead their agency, it’s indicative of the need for this committee to reflect what the American people look like. And I want to appreciate you today for what you’ve had to endure today this far, and we’ve only just begun," Johnson said.
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Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is of Lebanese, Czech and German descent, took issue with Johnson’s assertion as a "racial slur against myself and other members of the Congress who, by the way, yesterday treated what I would call a very white man of greater age very similarly."
Later in the hearing, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., asked Khan whether she felt she was being treated unfairly. Khan declined to weigh in and deferred to the committee on that debate.
FOX Business’ Philip Bodinet and Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.
