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Government Corruption
Judge blocks Trump admin efforts to dismantle Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
2025-03-29
[FoxBusinessNews] The judge ordered the CFPB not to delete any data, to reinstate terminated workers and to allow work to resume

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from attempting to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying the court "can and must act" to save the agency from being shut down.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson
…appointed by President Obama in 2011 to the DC circuit, she ascended to senior judge status two years ago…
agreed to issue a preliminary injunction to keep the agency in existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve it.

The federal government can now ask a federal appeals court for emergency relief.

Lawyers representing a workers' union and other consumer advocates had sued the Trump administration to reverse the move last month to shutter the agency. The shutdown led to mass firings, contract terminations, office closures and an agency-wide work stoppage.

The agency had been "within hours of firing nearly its entire staff," Deepak Gupta, an attorney representing CFPB workers, said in a statement. "We're heartened by the decision and look forward to continuing to press our case in court."

President Donald Trump said after firing the CFPB's director last month that the agency should be shut down. His senior advisor, Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), posted "CFPB RIP" on X on the day DOGE workers gained access to the CFPB's headquarters.

But after the lawsuit was filed, agency officials backtracked from some of their positions, claiming in court that they did not plan to eliminate the agency and instructed staff to resume some work.

"If the defendants are not enjoined, they will eliminate the agency before the court has the opportunity to decide whether the law permits them to do it, and as the defendants' own witness warned, the harm will be irreparable," Berman Jackson wrote.

She rejected key evidence Justice Department lawyers had presented, calling some claims "a charade for the court's benefit."

The judge wrote that Mark Paoletta, the CFPB's top legal officer, "insults the reader's intelligence when he feigns surprise" that few CFPB employees were still working.

Berman Jackson also said that the agency's chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, after being contradicted by sworn statements undermining the administration's position, had appeared on the witness stand torn between the "loyalties to his new employers and the truth playing out on his face."

Berman Jackson ordered the CFPB not to delete any data, to reinstate terminated workers and to allow work to resume.
Related:
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 2025-03-21 Musk summoned to Pentagon for mystery meeting on military plans as Trump issues denial about 'war with China'
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 2025-02-15 The technology team at financial regulator CFPB has been gutted
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 2025-02-11 CFPB''s 1,700 employees told to ''not perform any work'' as Obama-era agency becomes latest Trump target
Related:
Amy Berman Jackson 03/06/2025 Biden Official Who Trump Fired and Was Reinstated by an Obama Judge Has Been Fired Again
Amy Berman Jackson 03/03/2025 US judge declares Trump’s firing of watchdog agency head illegal
Amy Berman Jackson 12/15/2024 Nearly 4 Years Later, No Letup in Jan. 6 Prosecutions, Possible Pardons or Not

Posted by:Skidmark

#3  allow work to resume.

Did they turn in their 'five things I did' the week before I was fired?
Posted by: Bobby   2025-03-29 17:01  

#2  Every action taken by the black robe insurrectionists only hastens their end. But it's been a long time one the making.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2025-03-29 16:29  

#1  Time to go Old Hickory?
Posted by: Grom the Affective   2025-03-29 05:07  

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