A Leftist Billionaire Vowed to ‘Reimagine Capitalism.’ Then He Colonized a Federal Agency.

In September 2020, the Omidyar Network, the activism vehicle of former eBay chief Pierre Omidyar, issued a “Call to Reimagine Capitalism in America,” bemoaning “structural racism, colonialism, paternalism,” and proposing to build “an explicitly anti-racist and inclusive economy.”

Omidyar was spending millions of dollars, largely funneled through dark money groups, to put Joe Biden in the White House. After his election victory, one of Omidyar’s groups, called Reset, explained how it would use the Biden presidency to implant its people to pursue its goals, specifically targeting agencies it believed had sway.

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Three years later, the France-born Omidyar has succeeded to an extent seldom seen, with a vast swath of top FTC posts going to people who worked for his “constellation” of groups — and sometimes continued to do so even as they joined the federal government.

Lina Khan, the FTC’s chair, was previously the legal director of the Open Markets Institute, funded by the Omidyar Network. Sarah Miller, the government agency’s chief of staff, left her role as executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, funded by the Omidyar Network, to take the job.

FTC’s chief technology officer, Stephanie Nguyen, served as a Civic Science Fellow for Consumer Reports, also funded by the Omidyar Network. FTC technology advisor Erik Martin previously worked with the Democracy Fund, which is solely funded by Omidyar. FTC’s spokesman, Douglas Farrar, worked for Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, funded by Omidyar. In May 2022, Alvaro Bodeya, a former board member of the Omidyar-backed group Free Press, was appointed as the FTC’s fifth commissioner, giving it a Democrat majority.

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Perhaps most alarming, by January 2024, all four officials listed on the website of AI Now Institute, an activist group funded by Omidyar to regulate how big tech firms use artificial intelligence, had been hired as FTC advisers, while apparently continuing to work at the nonprofit.

The advisers contributed to key FTC outputs including a report to Congress on “online harms” including “disinformation.”

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Just as Reset pledged, key roles at the Department of Justice were also captured. DOJ Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Jonathan Kanter had worked, through his previous law firm, as a lawyer for the Omidyar Network. The division’s Senior Counsel, Sally Hubbard, came from the Open Markets Institute, and Deputy Chief of Staff Robyn Shapiro came from the American Economic Liberties Project.

At least 12 people linked to Omidyar nonprofits have worked in the Biden White House itself {snip}

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Omidyar Network has pledged to “commit to the calling of Angela Davis,” referring to the longtime communist who was acquitted of murder after she bought one of the guns used in the killing of a judge, and who was involved in the Jonestown suicide cult.

A Capital Research Center (CRC) probe fashioned Omidyar as the new version of liberal mega-donor George Soros. {snip} The Omidyar Network says it has paid out more than $1.86 billion and “reimagines critical systems, and the ideas that govern them, to build more inclusive and equitable societies.”

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