Litigation to file details of Doge’s plan to dismantle CFPB
Prior to the federal judge’s last-minute intervention, Trump administration officials had planned to strip the agency of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau until there was nothing left in the room “with five men and a phone.” According to current and former employees, the agency said.
Their written testimony was included in documents filed Thursday as part of a lawsuit aimed at stopping mass shootings at the besieged bureau. They provide new step-by-step details of how insiders say the government has planned to manage regulators charged with police how large banks, mortgage lenders and other financial services companies handle clients.
They also explain how the agency performs important functions to do so under federal law, such as operating a consumer complaint portal, has ceased to function thanks to cancellation of almost all external contracts and a suspension order issued by acting director Russell Vought.
Amy Berman Jackson, Senior Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Temporarily blocked Two weeks ago, Trump officials claimed that CFPB staff were fired in response to legal challenges by unions representing federal employees, initially terminated 95% of their strong workforce of 1,700, ended leases and canceled external contracts, and the administration planned to effectively eliminate the agency.
The Trump administration is asking for it Lift her order And this week, they argued that they were just trying to “rationalize” the CFPB, rather than completely abolishing it, and that they were continuing to run the functionality they needed legally.
However, according to a filing Thursday, the Trump team had planned to leave the ramp version of the CFPB, which was only present in its name, in place, with support from Elon Musk’s government efficiency.
Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez told employees the agency was in “winddown mode.” twoof A declaration submitted by an anonymous current employee. A senior executive explained to staff that “writing is on the wall,” and allegedly shared that “the intention of leadership was to fire everyone except the five positions required by the Dodd-Frank Act.”
“A senior executive said the CFPB would “be a room in the Finance, White House or Federal Reserve, with five men and phones in it.” ” Drew Doe testified.
Trump officials had planned to fire staff in three stages, according to the filing. A member of the Doge team named Jordan Winck has allegedly ordered CFPB staff to fire 1,200 more workers by February 14th. Most of the remaining employees were cleared after 60-90 days.
“The bureau was intended to comply with and fire the majority of the remaining employees on February 14th,” wrote CFPB staffer Alex Doe. “The only reason it didn’t do that is because this court order temporarily prohibits it from doing so.”
He will be taking part in a protest at CFPB headquarters in Washington on February 10th in support of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. (AP photo/Jaclyn Martin) ・Associated Press
According to the declaration, Trump and Dozi officials quickly cancelled a $227 million contract worth about $200 million in contracts with external vendors that provide everything from expert legal testimony to cybersecurity. Some of the data maintained by these vendors can be lost forever.
“I have been a contract officer for many years through multiple changes to management,” wrote the contract officer, identified as Charlie Daw. “Events over the past few weeks are different from what I have never seen at any agency before during administrative changes (or other times). The instructions to contractors did not reflect changes in policy direction, but rather the wholesale termination of contracts necessary to maintain CFPB implementation.”
Separately, Adam Scott, Director of CFPB Digital Services I wrote it in a declaration He was told that Vought personally had decided to delete the CFPB homepage.
Earlier this week, he filed the documents to the government courts, including Martinez, COO, Rejected claim The bureau was trying to move cash into the Federal Reserve and effectively empty its own resources. However, the employee was identified as Blake Doe It’s contradictory He wrote on Thursday in a declaration that he saw the email dated February 11, 2025. Martinez said Chief Financial Officer Jafnar Gueye is communicating with the Federal Reserve on how to return money to either the Federal Reserve or the Treasury Department.
According to the filing, some key features that the CFPB needs to maintain in law are currently only partially functioning thanks to Vought’s suspension order. That consumer complaint portal can automatically handle only certain submissions, with around 10,000 complaints still waiting for manual reviews. One Declaration.
CFPB’s student loan Ombudsman Post is also vacant, and that general ombudsman, whom administrative officials said they would pick up the Slack, is said to have been ordered not to work.
A new hearing for the lawsuit is scheduled for next week. 203 Democrats from Congress submitted on Friday Amicus’s letter The court is asking the court to stop the Trump administration from shutting down the CFPB “by Fiat.”
Meanwhile, despite most of the CFPB’s work being suspended, it dismisses many of its prominent enforcement cases. After dropping five suits on Thursday, it dismissed yet another suit – this time Opposition Credit Rating Agent Transunion – Friday afternoon.
Jordan Weissman is a senior reporter on Yahoo Finance.
