FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan testifies throughout the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce hearing titled “Oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission,” in Rayburn Constructing on Tuesday, April 18, 2023.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan refused to recuse herself from the agency’s case against Meta Platforms against the advisement of top agency officials, in accordance with internal FTC documents published by Bloomberg News.
An ethics official beneficial Khan remove herself from a 2022 review of Facebook parent company Meta’s proposed merger with virtual reality fitness service Inside Limited to “avoid an appearance of partiality.”
“From a federal ethics perspective, I actually have strong reservations with Chair Khan participating as an adjudicator on this proceeding where — fairly recently, before joining the Commission — she repeatedly called for the FTC to dam any future acquisition by Facebook,” Lorielle Pankey, a delegated ethics official, wrote within the August 2022 memo.
The FTC didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment from CNBC.
Pankey added that Khan’s decision to adjudicate the case “is just not per se a federal ethics violation.” The FTC defended Khan’s involvement within the case, and the agency’s Democratic majority approved her decision over the objections of former Republican commissioner Christine Wilson, Bloomberg reported.
Wilson stepped down earlier this 12 months.
Khan’s perceived opposition to Meta acquisitions spurred the corporate’s request to disqualify her participation within the case. The FTC blocked Meta’s petition in February, though a federal judge allowed the acquisition to proceed.
The FTC sued the tech firm to dam the Inside Limited merger in July 2022. FTC Bureau of Competition Deputy Director John Newman accused Meta of “attempting to buy its strategy to the highest” through an “illegal acquisition.”
In her dissent from the recusal decision, Wilson, who slammed Khan in a resignation letter, argued that the FTC chief in 2017 made “an express statement that Meta transactions are illegal.”
