Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan confronted mounting congressional scrutiny Thursday over allegations she has ignored lawmakers and wasted taxpayer cash in pursuit of her private agenda.

The House Judiciary Committee grilled the Biden appointee, whose tenure on the FTC has pushed away many workers and all GOP commissioners, amid questions in regards to the politicization of the regulatory company’s actions.

Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, ripped Ms. Khan at a listening to for bypassing Congress and for allegedly harassing the social media platform Twitter with requests for data since Elon Musk’s takeover.

“Chair Khan has no interest in providing information to the people’s representatives in the Congress, to the people on this committee, when we ask for it,” Mr. Jordan mentioned. “To date, the FTC has not fully complied with a single request for documents from this committee and because of her mismanagement not even her own staff is impressed with Chairman Khan’s leadership.”

Ms. Khan mentioned she is faithfully executing her official duties and is happy together with her company’s work.

“The FTC is firing on all cylinders, fighting every day to protect the American people from unlawful business practices,” Ms. Khan mentioned. “These efforts reflect the extraordinary work of our agency’s staff whose talent and dedication are second to none.”

More than 120 workers left the FTC inside a yr of Ms. Khan’s 2021 affirmation and the company’s work has since deteriorated, in accordance with the House Energy and Commerce Committee. That committee is probing Ms. Khan’s work, alongside the judiciary panel and the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the Energy and Commerce Committee chairwoman, requested data from the FTC in a letter on Wednesday with Mr. Jordan that mentioned lawmakers have been involved Ms. Khan didn't implement the legislation and safeguard taxpayer assets.

Ms. Khan has pursued Big Tech corporations with restricted success, and has up to now failed to dam mergers pursued by Microsoft and Facebook’s mother or father firm Meta. Earlier this week, a federal decide stopped the FTC’s effort to squash Microsoft’s $69 billion buy of Activision Blizzard.

Some Republicans assume Ms. Khan is intentionally selecting fights she expects to lose in courtroom and losing taxpayers’ money within the course of.

Rep. Kevin Kiley, California Republican, questioned whether or not Ms. Khan was deliberately shedding circumstances in hopes of persuading Congress to overtake antitrust legislation in help of a liberal agenda to tilt the courts in her favor.

He cited Ms. Khan’s zero successes in 4 tries to dam companies’ mergers.

“You’re actually bringing the cases,” Mr. Kiley mentioned. “You’re losing because you don’t have the authority that you want from Congress, so this is how you think you’re going to persuade Congress to give you more authority — is by exceeding the authority that you now have?”

“Congressman again, we only bring lawsuits where we believe there is a law violation given the facts in the law at hand,” Ms. Khan mentioned. “We fight hard when we believe that there is a law violation, and unfortunately things don’t always go our way.”

Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, mentioned Ms. Khan was pushing her private coverage agenda on the FTC that corporations ought to must be much less aggressive as a way to merge.

“My problem here today is that you’re a bully,” Mr. Issa mentioned to Ms. Khan. “You have half a billion dollars to spend and you choose to spend it promoting a policy that when you were a [congressional] staffer sitting behind us you seemed to be very much into.”

Democrats criticized Republican lawmakers’ remedy of Ms. Khan. Rep. Hank Johnson, Georgia Democrat, mentioned Republicans have been engaged in bigotry in opposition to Ms. Khan, a lady of Asian descent.

“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,” Mr. Johnson mentioned.

Mr. Issa interjected that the identical Judiciary Committee had equally grilled a “very White man of a greater age,” FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, on Wednesday. Mr. Issa mentioned Mr. Johnson had made a racial slur in opposition to Mr. Issa and different Republicans.

Mr. Johnson mentioned he didn't intend to recommend Mr. Issa was singularly accountable however that the complete committee was appearing inappropriately.

While Republicans and Democrats sparred, the FTC’s aggressive pursuit of expertise corporations has not stopped. The FTC despatched ChatGPT-maker OpenAI a prolonged demand this week for data about synthetic intelligence threat, in accordance with stories on Thursday.

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