Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, said on Tuesday that the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission decided to “go after” Elon Musk just days after the billionaire purchased Twitter in 2022.
Jordan spoke to “Morning Wire” following a House Judiciary report that showed that FTC Chair Lina Khan “called for an immediate vote” on a consent decree against Twitter days after Musk took over the social media platform, according to The Daily Caller. In the first three months of Musk’s ownership of Twitter, the FTC sent over 350 demands for documents and information from the company.
The Republican congressman said that emails reviewed by the Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee showed the FTC ramping up the urgency for consent decrees “due to Elon Musk’s purchase of the company.”
“And then once he bought the company, they went full tilt, sending him all kinds of letters saying we need this information, that information,” Jordan added. “They even ask, who are the journalists? You’re talking about First Amendment issues. Who are the journalists you’re talking to relative to the whole ‘Twitter Files’ issue?”
After Musk took over Twitter, he shared internal company information with multiple journalists who compiled it in the “Twitter Files” series. The Twitter Files revealed details about the social media platform’s actions against conservative users, including how it censored the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election and partnered with the Biden administration and FBI.
According to the subcommittee, the FTC uses consent decrees to “settle claims of wrongdoing and impose specific requirements on a company.” During the process, the FTC can demand information from the platform, The Daily Caller reported. The Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee, however, alleges that the FTC “weaponized its regulatory authority” to go after Musk.
Jordan told “Morning Wire” that FTC Chair Khan has “been after Musk from the get-go,” adding that he believes it’s “part of this attack on the First Amendment, where it’s big government, big media, big tech, all working together to stifle American speech.” The congressman made a point of praising Musk for spending “all this money to protect the First Amendment.”
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A year before Musk took over, Twitter and the FTC, under Khan’s new leadership, agreed to a consent decree, but Khan pushed for an “immediate vote to finalize the settlement” after Musk bought the platform. The subcommittee also alleges that Khan moved to vote on the consent decree without giving the FTC commissioners enough time to review the evidence, which is traditionally what takes place.
“Prior to going to the FTC and becoming chairman, she worked for Jerry Nadler and the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee,” Jordan noted. “So yeah, she’s been after Musk from the get-go.”
“We continue to get information. We’ve sent subpoenas to get information, and we’ll do everything that we can,” he added. “And I always say, we don’t take anything off the table when it comes to fulfilling our duty under the Constitution in the legislative branch to do oversight of the executive branch. So we’ll continue to do that and try to get all the information we can for the American people.”
