Just how does the Federal Trade Commission fit into the rising concerns about political weaponization of government? We could ask Elon Musk that question, but instead I spoke with Ashley Baker, director of public policy at The Committee  for Justice and also the founder of The Alliance on Antitrust. Ashley is an active member of the Federalist Society as well and worked on Supreme Court confirmations of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

In my latest episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast, Ashley and I have a wide-ranging discussion on the FTC and anti-trust, as well as the need for reform of agency law and the regulatory state. The FTC’s intervention into the Twitter Files reports not only casts a pall on journalism and transparency, it also demonstrates why Republicans have begun pushing back on Leviathan.

“So here we have the Federal Trade Commission going on the fishing expedition,” Ashley says, “and this is very much not businesss at usual at the FTC. What the FTC is doing with Elon Musk in asking for the identity of these reporters,” Ashley continues, “asking for anything related to that mentions Elon Musk — this is way outside the scope of what you would normally see from the Federal Trade Commission.”

Given Ashley’s long experience in following the FTC, she is “not surprised” to see them go after Musk in this way, but that others should be. “It’s very clearly going on a fishing expedition,” Ashley says, and “they’re not the only ones. The IRS actually visited Matt Taibbi’s house while he was testifying” to Congress, “which is absolutely bonkers. That’s absolutely insane. I mean,” she continues, “that’s one of the things that kind of along the lines of what Richard Nixon was impeached for.”

Ashley and I discuss more issues in this episode as well:

• On anti-trust and government intervention: “I think we wouldn’t have the Gilded Age without the government … Because of all these other government regulations, we end up with these concentrations.”
• On the FTC’s response to the weaponization committee: “As of right now, I think they are stalling. They asked for document production related to why exactly they’re doing this, all the requests specifically and all these specific communications regarding them and outside communications …”
• On present challenges to agency law and SCOTUS: “This term though, there’s Biden v Nebraska, which is another case, about the student loan forgiveness. … under the major question docrine, you know, this, this is clearly a major question.”

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