…One of #Trump's first acts…was to create #DOGE, [supposedly] to root out waste, fraud & abuse, slash govt spending & purge the federal workforce of low-performing, *disloyal* & unnecessary workers.
…In practice,…DOGE has mostly pursued long-time #Republican #policy objectives, shuttering agencies such as #USAID & the #CFPB, which provide a lifeline to the world's needy & protect Americans from unscrupulous lenders respectively.
US District Judge Amy Berman blocks the #Trump administration from dismantling the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (#CFPB) with a temporary injunction that will remain in effect until she has heard the merits of the case. https://apnews.com/article/trump-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-d091cfb0794813e40098a40e00a6d1c2
#Trump on Friday commuted the sentence & probation of #CarlosWatson, a co-founder of the now-defunct #digital #media company Ozy Media, on the day he was set to surrender to prison.
Watson was sentenced in Dec to almost 10yrs in #prison for #fraud, #IdentityTheft, #SecuritiesFraud, & #WireFraud.
Watson & Ozy were also ordered to pay $96M in restitution & forfeiture. As part of Trump’s commutation, they will no longer have to pay.
#law #felon47 #CFPB #SEC #corruption
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/28/trump-commutes-sentences-of-ozy-media-founder-carlos-watson-and-company.html
Judge Amy Berman Jackson in the National #Treasury Employees v. #RussVought (acting director of CFPB) ruled that the attempt to dismantle #CFPB is likely unlawful, & the recent claims by the #Trump admin that the agency was still performing its statutorily mandated duties was "nothing more than window dressing."
As such she ordered a preliminary injunction.
#law #ConsumerProtection #AbuseOfPower #Trump
https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2025cv0381-87
![In sum, the Court cannot look away or the CFPB will be dissolved and dismantled completely in approximately thirty days, well before this lawsuit has come to its conclusion. For all of the reasons set forth above, the Court will GRANT [Dkt. # 10] plaintiffs' motion and issue a preliminary injunction that maintains the agency's existence until this case has been resolved on the merits, reinstating and preserving the agency's contracts, work force, data, and operational capacity, and protecting and facilitating the employees' ability to perform statutorily required activities. The Court is aware of the modifications the plaintiffs have made to their proposed order, as well as the objections lodged by the defendants to previous iterations of the proposed order, and it is mindful that its order must be sufficiently specific to be enforceable, while also broad enough to afford the agency and its leadership the discretion they are accorded under the statute when carrying out their regulatory, enforcement, and supervisory responsibilities.](https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/114/242/098/939/614/022/original/6844bc004d4f87fa.png "In sum, the Court cannot look away or the CFPB will be dissolved and dismantled completely in approximately thirty days, well before this lawsuit has come to its conclusion. For all of the reasons set forth above, the Court will GRANT [Dkt. # 10] plaintiffs' motion and issue a preliminary injunction that maintains the agency's existence until this case has been resolved on the merits, reinstating and preserving the agency's contracts, work force, data, and operational capacity, and protecting and facilitating the employees' ability to perform statutorily required activities. The Court is aware of the modifications the plaintiffs have made to their proposed order, as well as the objections lodged by the defendants to previous iterations of the proposed order, and it is mindful that its order must be sufficiently specific to be enforceable, while also broad enough to afford the agency and its leadership the discretion they are accorded under the statute when carrying out their regulatory, enforcement, and supervisory responsibilities.")
"The #CFPB instituted a $5 cap on overdraft fees under Biden (would've saved consumers $5B/yr). Thankfully for major banking insts & unfortunately for working Americans -Trump won, & with his admin’s blessing, Rs just advanced leg to repeal the cap on overdraft fees.
The Senate voted 52-48 on Thurs in favor of a resolution from Sen Banking CMTE CHM Scott to repeal the rule. He'd the gall to say that removing the cap on overdraft fees would be “good for consumers."
#USPol https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/republicans-vote-repeal-cap-bank-overdraft-fees-1235304880/
…The case began in 2020 when the #CFPB accused Townstone of #redlining & breaking fair-lending laws by discouraging residents living in majority-#Black neighborhoods from applying for its #housing #loans. It homed in on comments made during the company’s radio show & podcast, “The Townstone Financial Show,” saying they were intended to rebuff Black borrowers or those seeking to buy homes in certain neighborhoods.
In an especially strange twist, the case — against #TownstoneFinancial, a small Chicago-based lender — was brought during #Trump’s first term by Kathleen Kraninger, the director he appointed to run the #CFPB.
#RussVought, who became the agency’s acting director last month, said it had “used radical ‘#equity’ arguments to tag Townstone as #racist with zero evidence, & spent years persecuting & extorting them.”
I thought they were trying to save money 
Under #Trump, the #Consumer #FinancialProtection Bureau #CFPB has dropped nearly a dozen enforcement cases brought during the #Biden admin, ending lawsuits against #banks & #lenders for a variety of financial practices that the #watchdog agency no longer considers #illegal.
But on Wed, the bureau went a step further: It is seeking to GIVE BACK $105k that a #mortgage lender paid to settle #racial #discrimination claims….
#law
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/business/cfpb-repay-mortgage-lawsuit.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=6A5655B4-A7D4-4098-AED1-2847DA87EEB0
"The enforcement freeze effectively halts the #CFPB efforts begun under frmr Pres Joe Biden to police #tech companies, some of which have donated millions to #DonaldTrump ... Among the firms under agency scrutiny are #Meta, the parent company of #Facebook...
The inquiry into Meta was being watched closely as a test case for the agency’s expansion into regulating tech companies whose businesses intersect with financial services."
- @ProPublica
Former #CFPB Director & #FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra to Steph Ruhle:
I hope people realize Trump carved out a #tariffs exception for small packages - which is exactly how #Fentanyl comes into the US from #China. He did this after meeting with the CEO of FedEx.
Steph: That's always been the way with him: Trump's decisions are often determined by the last person he spoke with.
No less than 76 #Democrats just voted with Republicans to overturn the #IRS's "defi broker rule" which would have required crypto firms like #MarcAndreessen's #Uniswap to collect information on their users and in so doing discourage the use of these platforms for #moneylaundering by criminals and rogue nuclear states (#NorthKorea *loves* Uniswap) and by the very wealthy to avoid paying #taxes.
The new wave of #memecoin scams like #TrumpCoin are also all facilitated/perpetrated by these decentralized trading platforms.
If any of these people are your representative you should do what you can to make sure they are primaried because they are not representing your interests. At a minimum call them and yell at them (this works better than most people think!)
The corruption of the US government by #crypto bros is extremely bipartisan.
* Full roll call of vote: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202571
Judge orders DOGE member to testify
https://www.muskwatch.com/i/158555627/judge-orders-doge-member-to-testify
"Judge John Bates ruled last week that a member of #DOGE must testify in a case challenging the group’s access at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Departments of #Labor and #Health and Human Services...
#Musk has repeatedly called for Bates to be impeached"
CFPB shuttered its HQ. The same banks that complained about its rules & ENFOR actions -now: allies.
For years, US FIN cos. have fought the #CFPB -portraying the agency as illegit -unfairly targeting IDU players.
If the Trump admin succeeds -banks would find themselves competing directly with non-bank FIN players.
DEREG isn't good for banks. Dimon has been lauding #DOGE, but he now realizes that the Trump admin is harming his IDU, & #corruption is on steroids.
#USPol https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/10/why-banks-dont-want-the-cfpb-to-disappear.html
Good clip going through #DOGE bro #MarcAndreessen's absurd lies regarding #debanking and the #CFPB as he attempts to convince #JoeRogan that financial regulation should be abolished.
there's a of a lot of new #X URLs with the words "#payments" and "#money" in them when you load the bird app (in addition to #Plaid), just in time for the administration to remove #CFPB oversight of payments apps...
* sdn.payments-dev.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
* sdn.payments-staging.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
* sdn.payments-prod.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
* sdn.money-dev.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
* sdn.money-staging.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
* sdn.money.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
When the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, banks charge more for loans — but often don’t pay higher rates to depositors. This scheme has allowed banks to pocket a more than $1 trillion windfall over the past two and a half years.
The Great Interest Rate Heist
https://jacobin.com/2025/03/federal-reserve-banks-interest-rates/
America’s consumer finance watchdog has helped countless families hang onto their homes after falling on hard luck. #CFPB
https://progressive.org/op-eds/the-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-does-vital-work-cohen-20250306/
#Trump claims #CFPB “destroys” people. Senators say killing it is a gift to #Musk. - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/trump-killing-cfpb-slammed-as-get-out-of-jail-free-card-for-elon-musks-x-money/ probably just a coincidence
Musk’s Big Senate Vote
Lawmakers will decide on whether to deregulate payment apps, incl the billionaire’s newest #business venture.
https://www.levernews.com/musks-big-senate-vote/
"The #GOP bill would repeal a rule subjecting #digital payment apps to the same oversight as credit cards & bank accounts. Three days after the #CFPB finalized the rule, #Musk tweeted that the agency should be “deleted”... part of the #Trump administration’s larger campaign to defang agencies regulating Musk’s empire"
