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Just how does the Federal Trade Commission fit into the rising concerns about political weaponization of government? We could ask Elon Musk<\/a> that question, but instead I spoke with Ashley Baker<\/a>, director of public policy at The Committee\u00a0 for Justice<\/a> and also the founder of The Alliance on Anti-Trust<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n In my latest episode of\u00a0The Ed Morrissey Show podcast<\/a>, 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cSo here we have the Federal Trade Commission going on the fishing expedition,\u201d Ashley says, \u201cand 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,\u201d Ashley continues, \u201casking for anything related to that mentions Elon Musk \u2014 this is way outside the scope of what you would normally see from the Federal Trade Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n Given Ashley\u2019s long experience in following the FTC, she is \u201cnot surprised\u201d to see them go after Musk in this way, but that others should be. \u201cIt\u2019s very clearly going on a fishing expedition,\u201d Ashley says, and \u201cthey\u2019re not the only ones. The IRS actually visited Matt Taibbi\u2019s house while he was testifying\u201d to Congress, \u201cwhich is absolutely\u00a0bonkers<\/em>. That\u2019s absolutely\u00a0insane<\/em>. I mean,\u201d she continues, \u201cthat\u2019s one of the things that kind of along the lines of what Richard Nixon was impeached for.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashley and I discuss more issues in this episode as well:<\/p>\n The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at \u00a0Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0Apple Podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel<\/a>, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n