Congress Can Investigate Lina Khan

There’s a precedent: The House looked into FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on similar grounds.

By Robert H. Bork Jr.
March 2, 2023 5:29 pm ET

Christine Wilson’s resignation from the Federal Trade Commission followed nearly two years of complaints about Chairman Lina Khan from her own staff and colleagues. Congress should investigate Ms. Khan’s leadership of the FTC.

There’s a precedent for such a probe. In 2008 the House Energy and Commerce Committee investigated Kevin Martin, President George W. Bush’s appointee as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Republicans supported starting an inquiry as controversy grew about Mr. Martin’s stewardship of his commission, although only the majority Democrats signed the 110-page final report. Mr. Martin announced his resignation soon after, well before the end of his term.

The report, titled “Deception and Distrust,” found that Mr. Martin employed a “heavy-handed, opaque, and non-collegial management style that has created distrust, suspicion, and turmoil.” He was accused of manipulating and suppressing reports, data and information and advancing policy positions by bullying, intrigue and creating “a climate of fear.”

Similarly, FTC employees in confidential government surveys have twice awarded Ms. Khan low marks for “honesty and integrity.” She continues to override staff recommendations and double down on losing legal strategies that earn her one courtroom rebuke after another, most recently with a judge tossing out her antitrust suit against Meta (which coincidentally now employs Mr. Martin). In my discussions with current and recent FTC officials, they describe Ms. Khan as a Machiavellian who muddies transparent processes and trashes precedent by announcing surprise policy reversals.

The FTC had long been revered for its intellectual ferment and impartial debate. FTC experts were sought out to speak at business forums, an activity that allowed them to vet ideas and receive insights into how markets function.

Like Mr. Martin, Ms. Khan crashed into an intricate system with a bulldozer. House Democrats accused Mr. Martin of creating a “culture of secrecy” at the FCC. He discouraged staff from participating in intra- and interagency working groups, task forces and external events. One of Ms. Khan’s first acts was to bar staff from external events. The commission’s internal culture of debate was replaced by unprecedented consolidation of power in her office. Like Mr. Martin, Ms. Khan issues directives without submitting policies to commission votes. Policies long subject to notice and comment are altered or rescinded with little or no internal or external input.

Mr. Martin was accused of withholding reports signed by fellow FCC commissioners from public scrutiny. Mrs. Wilson detailed examples of “dishonesty and subterfuge” at Ms. Khan’s FTC, including the flouting of due process and misuse of redaction to black out disclosures of ethical breaches. Ms. Khan twisted the rules so that a departed commissioner could cast “zombie votes.” Early on, she unleashed a combative chief of staff—sporting the f-word on a silver necklace—to let everyone know that, contrary to Pete Townshend, the new boss was completely different from the old boss.

The House report on Mr. Martin asserted that fear of losing their jobs made key witnesses at FCC “unwilling to testify or even have their names become known.” My experience with Ms. Khan’s FTC is that staffers, even when guaranteed confidentiality, often refuse to confirm the time of day.

The mainstream media, which was unsparing in describing the abrasiveness of Mr. Martin, have built Ms. Khan up as an enthralling wunderkind. They now frame Mrs. Wilson’s resignation as a Republicans-pounce story. The New York Times asserted that Ms. Khan has “come under repeated fire from the political right and big business for being too tough on mergers.” The Washington Post reported the resignation as a “GOP uproar.”

The uproar should be bipartisan and the press should take an interest in Ms. Khan’s bad management. It won’t, but that shouldn’t stop Rep. James Comer and the House Oversight Committee from investigating.

Mr. Bork is president of the Antitrust Education Project.

Appeared in the March 3, 2023, print edition as ‘Congress Can Investigate Lina Khan’. View on WSJ.com