It’s no secret that various officials in the Biden administration have misused their power since coming into office. NetChoice has been vocal about such abuses we’ve seen across federal agencies.
But, as the now soon-to-be former FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson details in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Chair Lina Khan’s offenses are not only harming Americans and our businesses, but the U.S. Constitution itself.
In the piece, Wilson details just a few of the many examples showing where Khan’s power grab has gone too far:
- Failing to recuse herself in the FTC’s lawsuit against Meta, which is against the FTC’s rules that a “chairman who investigated the same company, conduct, lines of business and facts as a committee staffer on Capitol Hill couldn’t then sit as a judge at the FTC and rule on those issues.”
- Inappropriate redactions of Wilson’s dissents against Khan in the Meta-Within trial.
- Setting aside decades of legal rulings around the agency’s procedure to significantly—and likely unconstitutionally—broaden the scope of the FTC’s power.
- Announced a broad “rulemaking” around labor contracts, which covers around ⅕ of employment in the U.S. and likely isn’t constitutionally sound.
After publishing Wilson’s op-ed, WSJ’s Editorial Board published their own piece detailing more of Khan’s abuses, such as:
- Increasing her power almost immediately upon entering office by getting rid of certain rules around how the agency can launch investigations.
- Misleading Senators during her hearings on whether she would recuse herself in trials where her ethics would be in question.
- Used “agency deliberative privilege” to hide documents in legal discovery that would have been crucial to Meta’s defense when trying to force the company to divest from WhatsApp and Instagram.
Lina Khan has used her time and authority at the FTC not to explore goals that would help Americans, like updating guidance for parents on social media for kids or investigating companies that actually have significant market power, but instead to pursue her long-documented, personal vendettas against companies she doesn’t like and to expand federal power over the U.S. economy.
It’s past due time to investigate and stop the clear abuses of power happening under Khan’s leadership at the agency.
Today, NetChoice calls on Congress to rein in Khan’s overreach at the FTC, either through legislation or oversight, to restore balance and bipartisanship to the once-respected agency.