The only Republican commissioner remaining on the three-person Federal Trade Commission, Christine Wilson, has resigned, citing Chairperson Lina Khan’s “disregard for the rule of law and due process.”
“I have failed repeatedly to persuade Ms. Khan and her enablers to do the right thing, and I refuse to give their endeavor any further hint of legitimacy by remaining. Accordingly, I will soon resign as an FTC commissioner,” Wilson wrote.
Khan has run roughshod over the agency’s permanent bureaucracy. Recently, a suit she brought against Meta to prevent Facebook’s parent company from acquiring VR company Within was tossed out by a federal judge, and the deal was allowed to go through.
And those permanent bureaucrats might agree with Khan’s agenda, but the chairman gets low marks on honesty and integrity.
I am not alone in harboring concerns about the honesty and integrity of Ms. Khan and her senior FTC leadership. Hundreds of FTC employees respond annually to the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. In 2020, the last year under Trump appointees, 87% of surveyed FTC employees agreed that senior agency officials maintain high standards of honesty and integrity. Today that share stands at 49%.
Many FTC staffers agree with Ms. Khan on antitrust policy, so these survey results don’t necessarily reflect disagreement with her ends. Instead, the data convey the staffers’ discomfort with her means, which involve dishonesty and subterfuge to pursue her agenda. I disagree with Ms. Khan’s policy goals but understand that elections have consequences. My fundamental concern with her leadership of the commission pertains to her willful disregard of congressionally imposed limits on agency jurisdiction, her defiance of legal precedent, and her abuse of power to achieve desired outcomes.
Wilson is not going quietly.
Much ink has been spilled about Lina Khan’s attempts to remake federal antitrust law as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. Less has been said about her disregard for the rule of law and due process and the way senior FTC officials enable her. I have failed repeatedly to persuade Ms. Khan and her enablers to do the right thing, and I refuse to give their endeavor any further hint of legitimacy by remaining. Accordingly, I will soon resign as an FTC commissioner.
Since Ms. Khan’s confirmation in 2021, my staff and I have spent countless hours seeking to uncover her abuses of government power. That task has become increasingly difficult as she has consolidated power within the Office of the Chairman, breaking decades of bipartisan precedent and undermining the commission structure that Congress wrote into law. I have sought to provide transparency and facilitate accountability through speeches and statements, but I face constraints on the information I can disclose—many legitimate, but some manufactured by Ms. Khan and the Democratic majority to avoid embarrassment.
Wilson has been prevented from fully disclosing Khan’s transgressions because FTC deliberations are non-disclosable under the law. But Congress could force those disclosures into the open and Khan would be exposed as the partisan, radical hack she truly is.
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This an interesting Twitter thread from former FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright on what happens with the FTC now that it has no Republican commissioners.
A lot of talk today about Commissioner Wilson's impending resignation from the FTC. There will be plenty to say about that I am sure. But I wanted to do a short thread on and what, if any, practical implications for the agency in the near term. Here goes: (1/x)
— Joshua Wright (@ProfWrightGMU) February 14, 2023
One of the critical distinctions is that with no pushback from any Republicans, the FTC is now a partisan tool in the hands of a Democratic president.
SCOTUS distinguished the FTC from the CFPB, emphasizing the former is "balanced along partisan lines," whereas the CFPB is not. That distinction, with three Democratic Commissioners and zero Republicans, is now illusory. (3/x)
— Joshua Wright (@ProfWrightGMU) February 14, 2023
Biden will be forced to find someone with an “R” in their background to replace Wilson but it will hardly matter. The “independent agency” will continue to attack the free market and bend the law to achieve its own agenda.
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