The Plot to Destroy the CFPB

[Passages]

Declarations in a court case involving the union of the consumer protection agency detail a desire to whittle it down to “five men in a room.”

by David Dayen February 28, 2025


A remarkable set of declarations from current and former employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau detail Acting Director Russ Vought’s scheme to illegally eliminate the agency, and the consequences for thousands of CFPB employees and millions of consumers left vulnerable to predatory financial scams.

The fourteen declarations, filed on Thursday in National Treasury Employees Union v. Vought, provide an unusually direct window into how the Trump administration sought to cripple an agency that has returned more than $21 billion to consumers over its lifespan. And the employees call out CFPB’s current chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, for lying in his declaration to the court that the agency is just going through a normal transition process in the transfer of political power.

CFPB has been under a “stop work” order since Vought took over the agency on an acting basis. No work has been performed and employees are on paid leave; the order was characterized as a work stoppage to get around federal employment laws limiting administrative leave to ten days in a calendar year. Seven outstanding enforcement cases were dismissed in the past week; the latest was a case against Trans Union.

One employee, who used the pseudonym “Alex Doe” for fear of retaliation, recounted personal experience of a February 13 meeting between CFPB leadership and the Office of Personnel Management, where a three-step process was discussed. First, all probationary and “term employees” (which have a fixed term of employment) would be fired, which occurred that day. Then, entire offices, divisions, and units would be let go, a culling of roughly 1,200 employees, which was supposed to happen the next day, on Valentine’s Day. Finally, the bureau would “reduce altogether” 60 to 90 days later.
https://prospect.org/2025-02-28-vought-cfpb-destroy-illegal/