Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan began targeting Elon Musk as soon as he acquired X, formerly known as Twitter, according to a report from the House Judiciary Committee published Monday.
The report listed a number of ways Khan weaponized the FTC to attack Musk after his acquisition of the company in October 2022.
Years before Musk bought Twitter, the FTC issued the company a consent decree — a legally binding promise by businesses to stop or correct certain practices.
Yet the FTC stalled for three years on enforcing the decree, until days after Musk bought the company. That’s when Khan called for “an immediate vote” to finalize the motion, according to the report.
Although Khan denied to commissioners that the expedited vote had anything to do with Musk’s acquisition, an email to Khan from her own attorney advisor was damning evidence to the contrary.
“The urgency is due to Elon Musk’s purchase of the company this week,” Khan’s attorney wrote.
The decree essentially allowed the FTC to demand whatever documents and information it wanted from Twitter, which is what it did.
The FTC sent more than a dozen letters to Twitter during the first three months of Musk’s