PUBLIUS SPECIAL GUEST: Robert H. Bork Jr. is the President of the Antitrust Education Project, and recently reissued his father's book, The Antitrust Paradox: A Policy at War with Itself.
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 Bush 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. Soon after, Mr. Martin announced his resignation 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 a confidential government surveys have twice now 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, one of two committees with jurisdiction over FTC, from investigating.
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PLUG BOOK: The Antitrust Paradox By Judge Robert H. Bork
BIO: Robert H. Bork, Jr., heads the Bork Group, a 18-year-old virtual crisis, litigation, and public affairs agency, which draws from the best, most-experienced, independent communications talent. Mr. Bork has designed strategies for clients in many high-profile cases and policy battles. His experience includes directing the public affairs strategy in critical issues for Eli Lilly, Google, AT&T, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform, to name just a few. He began his career as a journalist as a police reporter before moving to business and economics. As a journalist, he covered international economics at U.S. News and World Report, was managing editor of the quarterly journal Regulation, and worked as a reporter at Forbes, The Detroit Free Press, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Miami Herald. Mr. Bork made the switch to advocacy in 1987 working at the Heritage Foundation, on Capitol Hill as an aide to U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey (R-NH), and as special assistant for U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills. Throughout his career, Mr. Bork has specialized in the development and implementation of communication strategies in crises, litigation, and legal policy. In his many years of experience managing the public environment surrounding high-profile matters, he has worked directly with CEOs, general counsel, and communications executives of major U.S. and international corporations. Mr. Bork's range of experience includes antitrust, product liability, intellectual property, securities fraud, economic espionage, white-collar crime, mergers and acquisitions, First Amendment and employment discrimination. His work has been on behalf of clients ranging from the automobile industry to pharmaceuticals, computers, software, chemicals, railroads, franchising, telecommunications, insurance, health-care, and former manufacturers of lead pigment. In every matter he has worked directly with the client's legal counsel. Mr. Bork graduated from Carleton College with a degree in American history. He was a Herbert J. Davenport Fellow in Business and Economic Journalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He lives in McLean, VA, with his wife (and general counsel) Diana. They have two children.
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Robert H. Bork Jr. is the President of the Antitrust Education Project, and recently reissued his father's book, The Antitrust Paradox: A Policy at War with Itself.