UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Federal Trade Commission

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20580

Office of the Chair

August 11, 2023

The Honorable Jim Jordan 

Chairman 

Committee on the Judiciary 

U.S. House of Representatives 

Washington, D.C. 20515 

Dear Chairman Jordan:

Your July 28, 2023, letter asks questions about the Commission’s responsiveness to your 

most recent requests, among other matters. As I have repeatedly stated, we are committed to 

responding to your legitimate requests for information. This year, the Commission has received 

13 letters with 65 specific requests from your Committee, and we have responded with 23 letters, 

15 productions, 5,000 pages of documents, and a non-public briefing about an ongoing law 

enforcement matter, in addition to my testimony before the Committee on July 13, 2023, and 

upcoming transcribed interviews from five agency career civil servants. The Commission is 

working on a comprehensive response to your additional requests from July 12, 2023, which we 

intend to deliver in the coming weeks. 

I also write to bring to your attention additional context involving ongoing violations of 

Rule 1.6 of the DC Bar Rules of Professional Conduct by a former FTC attorney who is a current 

member of your staff. Prior to departing the FTC to join your staff, this individual had access to a 

broad range of non-public information related to sensitive law enforcement and other matters. 

Upon his departure, he received an ethics briefing informing him of his obligations to safeguard 

non-public information in any future position, including any role with another federal employer.

Unfortunately, on May 8, 2023, this individual appeared to utilize sensitive non-public 

and confidential information that the rules of professional responsibility plainly prohibit him 

from using. In addition, he has refused to recuse himself on at least three of the Committee’s 

inquiries, which involve matters that he worked on while at the Commission and about which he 

obtained non-public information. As you know, Rule 1.6 of the DC Bar Rules of Professional 

Conduct prohibit a former Commission attorney from using non-public information obtained 

while an FTC employee in any future position with another employer. This includes identifying 

topics for Commission document and interview requests, names of Commission employees to be 

interviewed, or questions to ask those employees.

On May 8, June 12, June 14, and July 26, the Commission informed you or your staff that 

your staff member worked on certain matters while at the Commission and that there were 

significant concerns with him participating in these inquiries.
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However, despite multiple efforts to communicate the frequency and gravity of these 

ethical deficiencies, it appears that the former FTC attorney continues to be directed to lead 

nearly all of the Committee’s communication with the Commission—his former client—in lines 

of inquiry related to his prior Commission work on sensitive law enforcement and other matters.

In fact, your letter of July 28, 2023, lists the former attorney as the contact for transcribed 

interviews with nearly two dozen FTC career civil servants. In a subsequent communication with 

the agency dated August 8, 2023, your staff explicitly instructed us to coordinate the interviews 

with our former employee, rather than with a different, unconflicted member of your staff. In a 

clear violation of the rules of professional responsibility, this former employee appears to be 

your choice to serve as the lead interrogator for the forced questioning of his former colleagues 

on the FTC's career staff. 

To reiterate from my previous correspondence, FTC staff are aware that any employee is 

free to speak to Congress at any time that they want. Your threats to subpoena, deny access to 

agency representation, and withhold the salaries of hardworking FTC staff seem intended to chill 

the agency’s work to carry out its mission and statutory obligations.

There is much on which we could work together to protect the American public and hold 

corporate wrongdoers accountable. As I’m sure you know, Ohio is second in the nation for Do 

Not Call complaints. Last month, in partnership with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and 

dozens of other state and federal partners, we announced more than 180 law enforcement actions 

against illegal robocallers and Do Not Call violators. As a result of the FTC’s ongoing work to 

stop the scrouge of robocalls, courts have ordered defendants to pay more than $2 billion and 

provide refunds to defrauded consumers all across the country.

I look forward to finding opportunities to similarly cooperate with you and your 

committee on these or other substantive issues that affect the pocketbooks of consumers and 

bottom lines of honest businesses in the communities you represent.

Sincerely,

Lina M. Khan

Chair, Federal Trade Commission

cc: The Honorable Jerrold Nadler

Ranking Member 

House Committee on the Judiciary