Fired Federal Official Explains Exactly Why She Believes Trump’s ‘Afraid Of’ Her

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, one of the Federal Trade Commission’s two Democratic members fired by Donald Trump this week, slammed the president on Wednesday as she claimed that she received no justification for her “absolutely illegal” termination.

Slaughter told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins the issue was bigger than her losing her job.

“It’s the principle that our laws need to be enforced without fear or favor and specifically, without commissioners fearing that they will get fired for failing to do a favor for the President’s allies,” she said. “That is a problem.”

Slaughter — who was appointed to the FTC during Trump’s first term — previously spoke out on the firings, noting that she has a “voice” and Trump is “afraid of” what she was able to tell Americans in her role.

Slaughter said that as one of two Democrats on the majority Republican FTC, she aimed to bring “transparency and accountability to the work” of the independent federal agency.

She argued that without the voice of minority commissioners, Americans “may not have any reason to know what was going on behind-the-scenes” — and may not see explanations and counterarguments when the FTC dismisses one of its litigations with big tech CEOs.

The FTC firings are just one of a number of Trump’s terminations of Democratic officials from independent, bipartisan bodies in the federal government.

The firings bring to focus a 90-year-old unanimous Supreme Court decision known as Humphrey’s Executor, which established that the president can’t fire leaders appointed to such agencies without cause.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the FTC firings this week as she claimed that the president “absolutely has the authority” to let the two commissioners go.

On Wednesday, Collins turned to an image of tech giants — including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — who attended Trump’s inauguration before Slaughter noted that the FTC is in active litigation with “almost all of them” on the screen.

Slaughter recalled the agency settling a privacy case with Facebook (now Meta) in which the tech company agreed to pay a $5 billion fine.

“The majority, at the time, touted it as the largest payment ever, and a huge successful win for law enforcement,” she said of the typically bipartisan commission.

“But I said I disagreed, that I thought it wasn’t nearly what the violations merited, and people should understand it as a slap on the wrist for a company that had the kinds of profits and revenue that Facebook had at the time,” she said.

Slaughter pressed that she plans to fight her firing “as long as it takes,” suggesting that her case could reach the Supreme Court.