Khan Claims House Judiciary Is Harassing FTC Staff

Thursday. The committee launched a campaign over the past month to intimidate and harass nearly 25 career staffers at the agency, despite the agency “actively and extensively” cooperating with Jordan’s staff on dozens of requests for documents, briefings and testimony, said Khan. She testified before the committee last week (see 2307130059). The FTC claims Jordan’s staff demanded to “interrogate” agency staff and obstruct the agency's enforcement efforts. Only once in the agency’s 109-year history has a career civil servant ever been deposed by a congressional committee, the agency noted: House Judiciary sought to depose 23 employees. The FTC is ready to respond to legitimate oversight queries, but “efforts to intimidate or harass career civil servants as a response to policy disagreements with senior leadership raises grave concerns,” said Khan. A Judiciary spokesperson said Thursday it's “clear” the FTC is “afraid of robust congressional oversight and answering for [Khan's] radical policies and toxic work environment." The oversight requests are “no different than what we ask of other agencies under our jurisdiction -- you have to wonder why Chair Khan is scared of transparency. And the FTC is so unprofessional that we first learned about her inaccurate and misleading letter from the media rather than the agency itself," the committee said.