By Michael Kunzelman
Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump’s attempt to dismiss almost everyone at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was interrupted on Friday by a federal judge, who said that she was “deeply concerned” by the plan.
The decision leaves in the limbo an office created after the great recession to protect itself from fraud, abuses and misleading practices. Trump administration officials argue that she has exceeded her authority and should have a more limited mission.
Thursday, administration officials moved to draw around 1,500 people, leaving around 200 employees, thanks to a reduction in force that would considerably reduce the office.
US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she was afraid that the layoffs violated her previous order preventing the republican administration from closing the CFPB. It envisages a legal action brought by a union of employees who wishes to preserve the office.
Jackson planned an audience on April 28 to hear the testimony of officials who worked on reducing the force, or RIF.
“I’m ready to solve it quickly, but I’m not going to let this rif go forward until I do it,” she said.
This is the latest example of how Trump’s plans have been faced with legal obstacles while working to reshape the federal government, saying that it is filled with fraud, waste and abuse. Other layoffs and policies have been submitted to stop and computer disputes.
The CFPB has long frustrated businesses with its surveillance and investigations, and Trump’s advisor Elon Musk has made it a superior target of his government ministry.
Mark Paoletta, the legal director of the CFPB, wrote in a declaration of justice that “the activities of the office have exceeded the limits of the law”, including what he described as “intrusive and useless fishing expeditions”.
He said officials have spent weeks developing “a much more limited vision for application and supervision activities” with a “smaller and more efficient operation”.
Some of the responsibilities of the CFPB are required by law, but would have only one person assigned to him under the Plan of the Trump administration.
The application division should go from 248 to 50 employees. The supervision division faces an even deeper reduction, from 487 to 50, plus a relocation from Washington to the Southeast region.
Before Friday’s hearing, lawyers for the National Union of Treasury Employees filed a declaration under the oath of a CFPB employee identified only by the pseudonym Alex Doe. The employee said that Gavin Kliger, a member of DOGE, managed the RIF team of the agency responsible for sending dismissal notices.
“He kept the team for 36 consecutive hours to ensure that the opinions go out yesterday,” said the employee. “Gavin shouted on people whom he did not think of working quickly enough to make sure they could go out on this compressed chronology, calling them incompetent.”
Bureau’s chief operating officer Adam Martinez told the judge that he thought Kliger is a detailed personnel management position at CFPB and does not work directly for Doge.
Jackson said she would demand that Kliger attend and testify maybe at the audience on April 28. She said she wanted to know why he was there “and what we were doing”.
“We are not going to decide what happened as long as we don’t know what happened,” said Jackson.
The pseudonym employee said that team members had raised concerns that the office had to make a “special evaluation” before being able to implement a rif. Paoletta told them to ignore these concerns and move forward with mass layoffs, adding that “leadership would assume the risk,” said the employee.
Officials of the White House did not immediately answer questions about the judge’s decision or the declaration of the employee’s court.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
