It’s an agency that you wouldn’t think would be in the news much, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau became another front in the war against the Trump administration for the Left. Now, acting director Mick Mulvaney has just fired the entire 25-member advisory board, which was starting to criticize the front office. Last night, Mulvaney told its members that they were being replaced. You’re fired, as Trump would say. It’s a purge, some late spring-cleaning but one that could bring this administration into conflict with congressional Democrats (via WaPo):
Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, fired the agency’s 25-member advisory board Wednesday, days after some of its members criticized his leadership of the watchdog agency.
The CFPB said it will revamp the Consumer Advisory Board, known as the CAB, in the fall with all new members.
The panel has traditionally played an influential role in advising the CFPB’s leadership on new regulations and policies. But some members, who include prominent consumer advocates, academics and industry executives, began to complain that Mulvaney was ignoring them and making unwise decisions about the agency’s future.
On Monday, 11 CAB members held a news conference and criticized Mulvaney for, among other things, canceling legally required meetings with the group.
On Wednesday, group members were notified that they were being replaced — and that they could not reapply for spots on the new board.
In a statement, the agency’s spokesman, John Czwartacki, took a final swipe at the group. “The outspoken members of the Consumer Advisory Board seem more concerned about protecting their taxpayer funded junkets to Washington, D.C., and being wined and dined by the Bureau than protecting consumers,” he said.
Last year, then- CFPB Director Richard Cordray left to launch his anticipated gubernatorial candidacy in Ohio. The vacancy was created and President Trump had the right to fill it, so he picked Director of The Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney. Liberals thought Leandra English, the deputy director for CFPB, would now helm the ship. Not the case. It created a very awkward situation; where both English and Mulvaney were at one point sending emails and instructions to staff under the “acting director” title. It was an attempted coup, as some would say.
The entire CFPB coup attempt by Cordray/English shows the utter contempt liberals have for rule of law, and reminds us the importance of a qualified federal bench.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) November 28, 2017
In the end, Mulvaney won out, with the courts ruling that the Trump White House could fill the vacancy, though English filed a lawsuit to block him from assuming the position. Still, there’s consternation with some within the CFPB, as a group of disgruntled losers, calling themselves “Dumbledore’s Army,” who reportedly communicate with each other on encrypted devices.
English’s lawsuit is still ongoing, with reports that the work involved occurred on government time, while a federal judge quashed another legal challenge to Mulvaney’s appointment by a federal credit union in New York City last February.