Ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, right, attends the House Judiciary Committee hearing titled Revoking Your Rights: The Ongoing Crisis in Abortion Care Access, in Rayburn Building, on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
A Republican-led House committee said Wednesday it subpoenaed the Federal Trade Commission for documents related to the agency’s inquiry into Twitter.
The subpoena comes after the House Judiciary Committee asked the FTC to hand over the information voluntarily last month. The request came after the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government released a report about what Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, called “inappropriate and burdensome demands” by the FTC of Twitter around the time that billionaire Elon Musk acquired the company.
Jordan wrote in a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan Wednesday that the agency’s compliance with the earlier demand “has been woefully insufficient.”
Jordan said the FTC’s earlier response sought to link its inquiry into Twitter to a privacy-related order it’s tasked with enforcing. But Jordan said that ignored other aspects of the committee’s questions about the FTC’s probe.
An FTC spokesperson said the agency had offered to brief congressional staff on its inquiry but that they hadn’t yet taken the FTC up on that offer.
“The FTC respects the important role of Congressional oversight,” FTC spokesperson Douglas Farrar said in a statement. “We have made multiple offers to brief Chairman Jordan’s staff on our investigation into Twitter. Those are standing offers made prior to this entirely unnecessary subpoena.”
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