Leandra English, the new Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and acting director after Richard Cordray’s exit, has filed for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Trump’s pick of OMB Director Mulvaney as interim director of the embattled bureau.
According to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court, Washington D.C.:
“The President’s purported or intended appointment of defendant Mulvaney as Acting Director of the CFPB is unlawful.”
In the lawsuit, Leandra English claims to be “the rightful acting director” of the CFPB, and calls for a TRO against Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney.
On Friday, Richard Cordray’s resignation and subsequent designation of English as his temporary replacement were followed a few hours later by Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney as acting head.
Things have apparently moved swiftly since then, with English taking the first legal shot at the Trump administration.
In a statement after the filing, Leandra English said:
“The talented and hard-working CFPB staff stand up for consumers every day. As Acting Director, I am filing this lawsuit to stand up for the CFPB.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), who put forward the original proposal for the CFPB in 2007 while a professor at Harvard Law School, has vocally defied Trump’s pick in a series of tweets over the weekend, while defending the CFPB’s work over the last six years since its inception:
The only thing that will turn the @CFPB into a disaster is for @realDonaldTrump to ignore Dodd-Frank & name an acting director determined to destroy the agency.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 25, 2017
Less than a decade after taxpayers bailed out the big banks, the banking industry made record profits last year. That’s who you’re worried about, @realDonaldTrump? https://t.co/O318bHhZbS
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 25, 2017
Trump has put a cloud of uncertainty over the @CFPB by attempting to override Dodd-Frank. Mulvaney should take no action until this dispute is decided in the courts. https://t.co/BBBCA6fRYs
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 27, 2017
If @realDonaldTrump believes he is acting legally by ignoring Dodd-Frank, he should go to court & seek a judgment right away to settle this @CFPB dispute.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 25, 2017
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