The Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) weaponized the agency against Elon Musk’s Twitter, according to a House Judiciary report provided exclusively to the Daily Caller.
Biden-appointed FTC Chair Lina Khan introduced a consent decree against the platform due to Musk’s acquisition, according to the report, although Khan denied that was the reason. However, the FTC was considering potentially enforcing the consent decree in the years preceding Musk’s acquisition – but Khan “called for an immediate vote” days after the deal was announced, documents show.
The House Judiciary Committee received more than a dozen letters the FTC sent to Twitter during the first three months of Musk’s acquisition. The FTC used the letters to institute over 350 demands for information and documents from the company, including demands that were outside the FTC’s consent decree, according to the report. (RELATED: Democrats Forecast Plan To Go After High-Profile Trump Supporters, Starting With Elon Musk)
House Judiciary Chairman @Jim_Jordan has subpoenaed FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan for harassing Twitter following Elon Musk’s acquisition. pic.twitter.com/n45lBlzlxN
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) April 12, 2023
A consent decree is a court-approved settlement agreement, according to Cornell Law School.
The agency uses consent decrees to “settle claims of wrongdoing and impose specific requirements on a company,” according to the Committee. Once a company has entered a consent decree, FTC lawyers can demand information from it.
The consent decree was in progress for three years, according to the report.
In October 2019, Twitter self-reported a violation of its consent decree with the FTC, the Committee said. Twitter and the FTC agreed to a tentative settlement in March 2021 regarding the FTC’s privacy and security concerns, but then-Acting Chair Rebecca Slaughter did not finalize the decree. When Khan took over in June 2021, she directed staff to restart the negotiations. In March 2022, Twitter and the FTC agreed to a nearly identical consent decree as the agreement in 2021. (RELATED: Elon Musk Takes Important Scalp In War On Censorship)
It was not until Twitter had announced Musk intended to acquire the company that Khan demanded an “immediate vote to finalize the settlement,” the report noted. The Committee alleges in its report that the FTC “weaponized its regulatory authority” against Twitter and Musk.
Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan prepares to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
FTC Commissioners Push Back
The FTC traditionally lets commissioners and staff review the evidence prior to voting on a consent decree, and Republican Commissioners requested access to the recommendation memorandum and decree proposal – but did not receive either, according to the report.
Khan accelerated the vote without letting commissioners take the necessary time to review the evidence, the committee asserted.
The attorney advisor for Republican Commissioner Noah Philips emailed Chair Khan’s attorney advisor asking why Khan was rushing the vote. Philips had repeatedly requested access to a recommendation memo.
Since Elon Musk Bought 𝕏:
-SEC sues Musk over the purchase
-FTC demands internal 𝕏 documents
-Biden DOJ sues SpaceX for not hiring refugees for secret rocket technology
-Biden DOJ and SEC open investigations against Tesla over a literal glass house
-Biden DOJ opens criminal… pic.twitter.com/L6va2tmdka— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 6, 2023
“Given that this matter has been open for quite a while, what’s the urgency?” The attorney advisor inquired.
“Commissioner Phillips has been very interested in seeing this [recommendation] package and has been regularly asking about it in his meetings with [the Bureau of Consumer Protection], so he’d like to understand the issues that require an accelerated review. It’s an important case and he will want time to get any questions he might have answered and give it thoughtful consideration.” (RELATED: ‘Threat To The First Amendment’: Jim Jordan Grills Biden’s FTC Chair On ‘Harassment’ Of Twitter)
Republican Commissioner Christine Wilson’s attorney advisor echoed Phillips’ concerns, noting that Wilson desired “sufficient time” to go over the material.
“The urgency is due to Elon Musk’s purchase of the company this week,” Khan’s advisor replied in a group email.
Email from Chair Khan’s attorney advisor to FTC staff. (Screenshot from House Judiciary Report)
Phillips’ attorney advisor requested elaboration on the matter, but the Chair’s office only repeated that the matter was urgent, according to the report.
Wilson’s attorney advisor sent an email expressing the need for the traditional three weeks.
“This is an important matter for the Commission and she wants sufficient time to review it carefully and discuss with staff,” the adviser wrote.
The Caller reached out to the FTC but at the time of publication has not heard back.
Email from Commissioner Wilson’s attorney advisor. (Screenshot from House Judiciary Report)
Despite these requests, however, the FTC voted to accept the consent decree in less than three weeks and referred it to the Department of Justice (DOJ) which filed it in federal court, the report said. The consent decree went into effect on May 26.
Chair Khan, according to the Committee, routinely claimed that the vote’s timing was due to the company and not the FTC. She also claimed the vote’s expedition was not because of Musk’s intention to acquire the company.
As the attorney advisor’s email demonstrates, however, Elon’s Musk’s acquisition was precisely the reason for the rushed vote – and Chair Khan has yet to provide any evidence to the contrary, according to the Committee.
Khan relayed to the Committee that the expedited vote was at Twitter’s request, according to documents. (RELATED: Biden FTC Chair Suffers Major Losses After Picking Fight With Big Tech)
“…Twitter’s counsel urged the Commission to approve the order expeditiously, to resolve the outstanding issues in the interest of facilitating the acquisition and change in ownership to proceed smoothly,” a letter from Khan to the Committee states.
The FTC did not provide the Committee with any documents showing that Twitter’s outside council was in direct communication with Khan’s office about the FTC vote, the report shows. FTC documents reveal Khan’s support for rushing the vote came prior to Twitter’s request to finalize the revised consent decree, the Committee added.
A Pretext For ‘Harassing’ Musk And Twitter
The report asserts that Khan’s FTC began “harassing” Twitter once the consent decree was approved.
Khan reportedly refused a meeting with Musk until Twitter adhered to all of the agency’s demands. Twitter’s attorneys, according to the report, noted that not all communications regarding Musk “could reasonably contain information about Twitter’s data security and privacy program.”
The FTC failed to explain why it was requiring Twitter to produce these communications, according to the report.
“The only reasonable explanation, then, for requiring all communications remotely related to Musk would be as a tool for the FTC to harass Musk,” the Committee said.
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
The FTC’s leadership assisted in investigations of Twitter, according to documents reviewed by the Committee. James Kohm, a Bureau of Consumer Protection staffer, received an email claiming that Khan “praised [the Twitter] team’s assertiveness and momentum in its Twitter investigation” and added that “it would be helpful for [the Twitter] team to connect with [the Bureau of Competition.]” (RELATED: George Soros Among Liberal Billionaires Bankrolling Groups Tied To Top Biden Regulator)
The Biden-Harris FTC also demanded information that was outside the consent decree’s purview, the Committee claimed. Despite protests from Twitter’s attorneys, the FTC continued to require that the company produce all communications pertaining to Elon Musk.
The FTC reportedly refused to “clarify” why the requested information was relevant, according to the report.
Additionally, the FTC considered using Twitter’s divulgence of information to journalists as a means of circumventing Twitter’s “privilege claim” for keeping documents from the agency.
1.THREAD: The Twitter Files
TWITTER AND “OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES”— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 24, 2022
“We probably need to press further on understanding with greater certainty and detail exactly what types of access Musk is granting outside journalists, both as a potential argument about their privilege waiver and also as a basic privacy/security access issue…” an FTC staffer wrote on Dec. 12, 2022.
If Twitter’s privilege claims were voided, then the FTC would be able to obtain information about the journalists who revealed the Biden-Harris administration’s censorship in the “Twitter Files,” according to the report.
Musk allowed journalists to reveal the role the Biden-Harris administration had in pressuring Big Tech to censor online speech, the Committee detailed. (Stream the Daily Callers documentary ‘Cleaning Up Kamala’ HERE)
In 2023, Twitter Files journalists Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi testified to the House Select Subcommittee on Weaponization about how the federal government pressured tech companies to censor speech – and how that censorship was election interference.
Unelected bureaucrats and Big Tech companies NEVER should collude to dictate what Americans can say or read online.
But here we are.@RepStefanik blasts the Censorship Industrial Complex 🔥 pic.twitter.com/uXNzLlW2dg
— Weaponization Committee (@Weaponization) November 30, 2023
Khan said the FTC needed to investigate Twitter’s compliance with the decree because the information Musk provided to the journalists involved in exposing the Twitter Files “triggered legal scrutiny,” the report states.
However, the FTC eventually discovered that measures were taken by the company to protect consumer privacy, and so the FTC’s investigation was no longer necessary. The agency seemingly closed its investigation into the company this early in 2024, the report shows.
The Committee also claims that Khan was uncooperative and “refused to produce key documents.” (RELATED: ‘Mafia Tactics’: GOP Rep Grills Merrick Garland For DOJ Choosing To Investigate Elon Musk, But Not Mark Zuckerberg)
The Biden-Harris FTC, under the leadership of Chair Khan, expedited the consent decree to “punish” Musk and his company for revealing the administration’s censorship, the report concluded.
The Caller previously reported how the Twitter Files exposed the FBI’s efforts to work with Big Tech to crack down on speech around the time of the 2020 presidential election.
The FBI reportedly told Twitter it would be the “belly button” for intelligence agency requests to Big Tech, documents revealed last year. Matt Taibi reported that an FBI agent asked former Twitter Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth about monthly calls between Big Tech and intelligence agencies.