Race to replace FTC chair Lina Khan pits antitrust hawks against candidate softer on Big Tech: sources

The race to replace Lina Khan as Federal Trade Commission chair is coming to a head, pitting antitrust hawks against a front-runner seen as taking a softer approach to Big Tech enforcement, sources told The Post.

Populist allies of President-elect Donald Trump have pushed for a crackdown on Google and other Silicon Valley firms — including Vice President-elect JD Vance, who has in the past praised Khan, the 35-year-old 2021 nominee. by President Biden.

Other top Republicans, however, favor a more business-friendly approach to enforcement that would pave the way for deals and acquisitions.

A leading contender is Melissa Holyoak, a Republican commissioner of the FTC who is also the former Republican attorney general of Utah.

Holyoak, which came under fire during its FTC vetting process for its past ties to Silicon Valley, is expected to allow the deal as long as consumers are protected, the sources said.

Holyoak is one of a trio of candidates that also includes Andrew Ferguson, her Republican colleague on the FTC, and former DOJ and FTC official Mark Meador, who served as an antitrust policy adviser to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

“I would call Melissa a slight favorite,” a source close to the transition team told The Post.

Antitrust watchdogs, however, chastised Holyoak during her previous five-year tenure as a lawyer at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank that has received funding from Google, Meta and Amazon and that “advocates for the repeal of antitrust law “, according to its website.

“There is a big divide between Big Tech and Little Tech. She is widely seen as Big Tech’s preferred choice,” said the source close to the transition team. “That’s definitely the biggest thing working against her. I could see that closeness with Meta and Google eventually derailing it.”

As for Meador, the Financial Times recently cited concerns among unnamed “Wall Street and Big Tech” executives who reportedly fear he will continue the same practices as Khan and Kanter.

Lee, the top influential Republican on the Senate antitrust subcommittee, told the FT he was confident that either Holyoak or Meador would “continue to hold Big Tech accountable” if elected.

Ferguson is a former senior adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Concerns that Ferguson’s ties to McConnell — who has had a rocky relationship with Trump over the years — could hurt his chances of landing the FTC’s top gig are overblown, according to Mike Davis, the former adviser principal for nominations under the then Senate Judiciary Chairman. Chuck Grassley.

“He worked for McConnell, but he’s a hardline populist, Trump supports America First,” Davis said. “Andrew has proven this in every position he has held, whether in the Senate where he confirmed Trump judges, in the Virginia Attorney General’s office when he brought the groundbreaking antitrust lawsuit against Google, and at the Federal Trade Commission, where he has held Big Tech responsible.”

As current commissioners, Ferguson and Holyoak have already been confirmed by the Senate and would not need to go through the process again.

This gives them an easier path to get the acting post and eventually the permanent choice.

Conversely, Meador would first have to be confirmed as FTC commissioner — a lengthy process that would likely see Trump appoint Holyoak or Ferguson as acting chair until it can be completed.

Holyoak’s team believes she has a “very good shot” at being named acting FTC chair following Khan’s departure, a second source familiar with the situation said.

Khan and DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter are set to step down after Trump’s inauguration after taking a tough approach to enforcement that angered Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Multiple sources described the situation as fluid and could not rule out the possibility that Trump could beat all three front-runners and pick someone else.

Other recent picks, such as attorney general nominee Pam Bondi and treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent, are expected to have input into the FTC’s selection as well.

“If President Trump picks Holyoak to be the permanent or permanent head of the FTC, it’s an indication that he’s ditching Big Tech,” a former Capitol Hill staffer who tracks antitrust issues told The Post. “Lobbyists, executives and lawyers for Big Tech companies will be overjoyed.”

Earlier this year, The Post obtained emails showing a strange relationship between Holyoak and her former colleagues at CEI, including the exchange of legal advice on high-profile cases like the Apple v. Epic Games antitrust battle.

During an exchange with Holyoak, CEI chief Kent Lassman wrote to the FTC that “burning it to the ground is very good for it.”

A source close to Holyoak disputed the criticism, noting that she has gone to court against Google, TikTok and Facebook during her time in Utah and has never represented any of the companies in private practice.

Holyoak has also called for the FTC to crack down on de-platforming and censorship by Big Tech companies, most recently in a joint statement regarding an FTC action against online sneaker retailer GOAT earlier this month, the source added.

In Utah, Holyoak played a role in negotiating the terms of Google’s $700 million settlement with a coalition of US states over the anti-competitive practices of Android app stores — a deal that some critics called too lenient.

A key part of Trump’s antitrust agenda took shape Wednesday as he named Gail Slater, an Oxford-educated lawyer and top aide to Vance, to serve as the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for antitrust.

Slater had also been seen as a leading contender for the FTC chair before her selection. Antitrust watchdogs hailed the move as a sign that Trump wants a crackdown on firms like Google and Apple to continue.

In his Social Truth post announcing the election, Trump said that “Big Tech has been rampant for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector,” and added that the DOJ’s antitrust division would continue a crackdown on antitrust actors. bad guys “under the leadership of Gail”.

A tech policy executive who requested anonymity said Holyoak’s appointment as FTC chairman would be a boon for Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which is currently being sued by the FTC — even as rivals Google and Apple , are being sued by the DOJ.

“Meta is fine with Gail at the DOJ and Melissa at the head of the FTC because they’ll have a bulldog going after their enemies [Apple and Google] at the DOJ and a lapdog ending their prosecutions by the FTC,” the tech policy executive said.

Trump transition team spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt did not return requests for comment.

She previously said decisions on Trump’s nominations “will be announced when they are made.”

Holyoak and Slater declined to comment. Meador did not return a request for comment.