Fired FTC Commissioner: 'This Is Corruption'

Markets "should be very concerned" by President Trump's actions at the Federal Trade Commission, says one of two Democratic commissioners fired on Tuesday. Rebecca Kelly Slaughter says she was "illegally fired" by Trump, who violated "the plain language of a statute and clear Supreme Court precedent," per Reuters. The FTC Act states a president can only remove a commissioner for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office." The Supreme Court stood by that in 1935, ruling President Herbert Hoover was unjustified in firing a commissioner because of his policy positions. The court noted the president did not have "illimitable power of removal" under the Constitution.

"This is corruption plain and simple," says Alvaro Bedoya, the other fired commissioner whose ouster leaves just two Republican commissioners remaining at the federal agency, which is required to be bipartisan. "This is about policing the ability of the FTC to police markets and ensure honest businesses are protected, instead of allowing companies that lie and cheat to get ahead," Slaughter tells CNBC, noting the FTC "is in active litigation against all of the companies, pretty much, whose CEOs flanked the president at his inauguration." "Illegally gutting the Commission will empower fraudsters and monopolists, and consumers will pay the price," adds Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, per Reuters.

"If I can be fired, I don't know why Jerome Powell can't be fired," Slaughter tells CNBC, referring to the chair of the Federal Reserve, who's said Trump is blocked from firing him under the law. The FTC's Republican chair Andrew Ferguson, appointed by Trump, said Tuesday he had "no doubts about [the president's] constitutional authority to remove Commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government." White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added, "The time was right to let these people go, and the president absolutely has the authority to do it ... If we have to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, we certainly will." (More Federal Trade Commission stories.)