Harris won’t say whether she would retain FTC’s Lina Khan in 2025 amid ‘deeply corrupt’ demands for her removal from billionaires

A Biden-Harris administration source is sounding the alarm over “deeply corrupt” calls from billionaire Democratic donors urging Kamala Harris to fire FTC Commissioner Lina Khan if she wins the 2024 election — something the presumptive presidential nominee has yet to condemn.

Venture capitalists Reid Hoffman and Vinod Khosla and media mogul Barry Diller, who have collectively donated millions of dollars to Harris’ current campaign committee and affiliated PACs, were quick to call Khan a “fool” who was “declaring war” on their business interests — and said she should be fired.

The anger at Khan comes as the FTC investigates companies in which each has a financial interest. At least five portfolio companies in which Khosla has invested are currently under FTC investigation, The Post has learned.

Khosla, who is worth an estimated $7.5 billion according to Forbes, took to X on Wednesday to reiterate Hoffman’s comments that Khan had to go. It’s unclear which companies are being targeted, but Khan’s portfolio includes giants like OpenAI and DoorDash.

Federal campaign finance records show that in June, before Harris rose to the top of the Democratic ticket, he donated $413,000 to the Biden Action Fund.

“It’s deeply corrupt to call for this and link it to a donation,” a Biden-Harris administration source said, noting antitrust investigations into Microsoft, where Hoffman sits on the board, and Homeadvisor, which is part of Diller’s Angi IAC.

“By publicly demanding her removal, they put Kamala in an impossible position,” the source told The Post. “The idea that Kamala would fire a 35-year-old, brown, progressive icon is absurd.”

Neither Harris’ campaign nor Hoffman responded to requests for comment.

Diller, who donated the maximum amount to the Biden-Harris re-election campaign last year as well as $100,000 to their PAC, told The Post on Wednesday that he regrets his criticism of Khan’s interview but not her aggressive antitrust record.

“I don’t know what I was thinking during that interview—she’s anything but an idiot—she’s intelligent!” he said. “I disagree with her on the competition issues, where I think the FTC overreached.”

However, Hoffman, in an interview with CNN on Tuesday afternoon, reiterated his demands for Khan’s ouster, saying he “doesn’t buy that level of influence.”

“I hope Vice President Harris replaces her,” he told CNN host Jake Tapper, adding that his opinion as a “donor and expert should remain confidential — separate.”

The LinkedIn co-founder, who has donated at least $7 million this year to Harris-linked Future Forward PAC, added: “I never show up at the White House and say, ‘I think you should do this.’”

But in December 2023, visitor records show, Hoffman met with White House staffers, including Rachel Chiu, who serves as special assistant to the president and chief of staff in the Office of Political Strategy and External Relations.

The Democratic Party megadonor gave $923,000 to the then-Biden Victory Fund, now the Harris Victory Fund, a little more than two weeks after the West Wing meeting.

“When I talk about these things, I talk more as a venture capitalist—I never talk as a Microsoft board member,” Hoffman continued, telling an incredulous Tapper. “I’ve never talked to Kamala Harris about this.”

“There aren’t a hundred Reid Hoffmans,” Tapper said. “It’s not like one of you is a donor and one of you has an opinion on Lina Khan and one of you is on the board of Microsoft and one of you is an equity investor.”

“I don’t think there’s a single politician alive who could make the kind of division you’re suggesting,” he stressed, before noting, “You and other donors were pretty quick to attack Lina Khan after Biden announced he was dropping out of the 2024 race.”

Hoffman refused to back down and even suggested that Harris “may be watching our segment.” Still, he acknowledged that his support for Harris and disdain for Khan do the Democratic Party no favors, given Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance’s support for FTC commissioner.

“Lina Khan is the person I would say is the best person to have in the Biden administration,” Vance said at Bloomberg’s RemedyFest technology forum in February. “I like a lot of the things that Lina Khan does.”

Infighting between Biden-Harris administration official and Democratic donors reveals party ‘now catering to corporate tech giants’, one GOP official told The Post

“There used to be a left-wing populist movement that was anti-Wall Street and anti-Big Tech, but that’s not the case anymore,” the agent said.

“Vance is thinking about antitrust; and they have a serious antitrust agenda and are probably more friendly to Khan,” the agent added. “They probably want to focus on tech/media and give oil/gas a pass. But they agree that tech companies need to be regulated.”

“The problem is they’re probably going to use antitrust law to advance their agenda, and she’s not going to comply,” the source said. “They want someone who’s going to continue her career and do Trump’s bidding.”

Hoffman needs more friends in Washington as he and Microsoft face increasing criticism from lawmakers, the sources said.

Lawmakers have been considering investigating Microsoft in the past few weeks over its comments about wishing Trump would become a “real martyr,” according to a report by the Washington Reporter.

The company has also come under fire over accusations that it placed calls to China requesting technical assistance for Defense Department contractors.

Hoffman has been trying to both curry favor with the candidates and distance himself from anything controversial — including his split with former adviser Dmitry Mehlhorn, who suggested the assassination attempt on Trump may have been “staged.”

Support for antitrust action has gained ground in recent years, with a YouGov poll showing that almost 70% of voters support taking antitrust action.

The FTC declined to comment.