By Diane Bartz and David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Lina Khan, the progressive head of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), faced tough questions on Thursday from a Republican-led House committee about court fights that the agency has lost.
The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee began with Chairman Jim Jordan calling Khan's tenure at the agency a "disaster," pointing in particular to a probe of billionaire Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, which the Republican has argued was an overreach.
Lawmakers have requested documents regarding the agency's review, and said the FTC did not respond adequately. Conservatives, without evidence, have accused social media companies, including Twitter before it was acquired by Musk, of seeking to stifle conservative voices.
Jordan accused Khan of having an obsession with Twitter and criticized numerous requests for documents and details on Twitter's decision to make some information available to journalists.
Khan defended the agency's actions, saying that the FTC requests were motivated by a desire to ensure that Twitter complied with its privacy rules and adding that Twitter "has a history of lax security and privacy policies."
The top Democrat on the committee, Jerry Nadler, sought to defend Khan, arguing that concentration in certain areas of the U.S. economy was a problem that the agency was tackling. "Ultimately Chair Khan, you will face attacks today because you are doing your job. That is what threatens Republicans," added Nadler.
Representative Kevin Kiley, Republican from California, asked Khan about the cases that the agency had lost, including a tough loss on Tuesday when a federal judge ruled that Microsoft could go forward with its $69 billion deal to buy "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard. The agency has said that it would appeal.
"We fight hard when we believe there was a law violation, and unfortunately things don't always go our way," said Khan.
Kiley pressed on.
"Are you bringing cases you expect to lose?" he asked a bit later.
"Absolutely not," Khan said. "
"Okay well your track record seems to suggest otherwise," he said.
Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican, sternly disagreed with the Khan FTC's decision to press on with a fight against Illumina's purchase of Grail after an FTC internal judge disagreed with FTC commissioners. That challenge was initially brought under the Trump administration and is currently before an appeals court.
The agency also lost a fight to stop Facebook parent Meta Platforms from buying VR content maker Within Unlimited.
Representative Scott Fitzgerald, a Republican, worried about investors in small businesses losing their exit strategies. "I think the issue for myself and many of my colleagues has been that the way you're running the FTC that you're not simply trying to kill deals in the boardroom, you're also killing small businesses still in the crib, you want startups to seek an IPO rather than acquisition but the cost of entering the public markets has doubled since the 1990s."
The agency has upcoming legal fights aimed at stopping Intercontinental Exchange's $13.1 billion deal for Black Knight and Amgen's purchase of Horizon Therapeutics for $27.8 billion.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Bill Berkrot and Andrea Ricci)
