The Consumer Financial Protection Office (CFPB) has abandoned five of his own lawsuits against companies, which he accused on Thursday for the victim of customers as a political and legal battle of the effort of Trump’s administration to radically reduce the agency.
The CFPB activity is generally frozen thanks to the order to stop Trump’s officials, who seem to target the guard because of potentially crippled cuts. Last week, rejected the case Opposite the network loans of solo funds, causing concerns among the democracy and advocates of consumers so that the administration could start offset by much of the legal agency.
“There are certainly indications that they intend to reject a large number of cases, if not all cases,” said Eric Halperin, who resigned as head of the CFPB execution at the beginning of this month after serving in the Biden administration. He noted that the Agency had canceled its contracts with the experts, which were key to proving the case in court, while his stopping of work prevented the movement of the suits forward.
CFPB lawyers did not explain their decision to give up on the subjects in their court reports, and the agency did not respond to the commentary request. All five cases were fired with prejudice, which means that they could not be revived in the future.
The moves are somehow unprecedented for the agency. By this month, CFPB only rejected one of his own lawsuits without first gaining some kind of consumers, former Yahoo Finance officials said. It happened under the first Trump administration in 2018, when the then director Mick Mulvaney finished A lawsuit against the lender of the Golden Valley of the lender. The case, however, was discarded without prejudice, which means that he could have been brought again in theory.
Several suits CFPB crossed to the end on Thursday was filed under former director Rohit Chopra after Trump’s victory in November. Regulator Sued the missile houses In December, claiming that he illegally provided real estate agents with inscriptions to direct their customers toward his sister’s lender, a rocket mortgage. In early January, she sued Vanderbilt Mortgas and Finance owned by Berksshire Hathaway, a mobile home lender he accused of illegally capturing customers in loans they couldn’t afford to pay.
CFPB has filed its case against capital one less than a week before Trump’s inauguration, claiming the bank fooled customers Out of two billion dollars by advertising a high -yield savings account that, in fact, paid very little interest.
Republicans and industrial groups criticized The time of these lawsuits as politically motivated, claiming that Chopra tries to express controversy cases at the last moment before the new administration could have had the opportunity to replace it at the top of the agency. Many expected these suits to be rejected.
But not all cases rejected by the agency during the lame duck. On Thursday he moved on to the waste a May a lawsuit He accused of collecting debts of debt collection of debts in bankruptcy against the assistance agency for higher education in Pennsylvania. He also threw out an August 2023 case. Opposite Heights Finance, a high cost of a installment for installments he said he had abused borrowers.
Theoretically, the general lawyers of some countries could try to submit their modified versions of rejected lawsuits, since they are legally empowered to implement the same consumer law as CFPB. But it is unclear how much labor or resources would have.
The move to discharge cases comes in the midst of legal battle with high roles around the future of CFPB. Federal judge last week temporarily blocked The acting director of Russell Vough from the release of any additional staff, after the union that represented the agency’s employees filed a lawsuit claiming that he had planned to release as many as 95% of his workforce. In the submission of this week, Trump officials claimed He simply intended to launch a “simplified and more efficient bureau” that is capable of fulfilling his “legal responsibility”.
Jonathan McKernan, candidate for Consumer Protection Director, testifies during his hearing to confirm the Banking, Housing and Urban Questions on Thursday, February 27, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) ·Tom Williams via Getty Images
CFPB, which was created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act in response to a housing bust and financial crisis, has long been the target of Republican critics, who accused him of using heavy tactics and stretching his legal authority. But it became a special focal point for Elona Male and his dog; The billionaire said he wanted to “delete” CFPB.
On Thursday, Democratic Senica Elizabeth Warren pushed Jonathan McKernan, Trump’s candidate to permanently run the office, on Will the Agency continue to implement the law under his leadership.
“I am fully dedicated to pursue the law fully and faithfully. It includes each of the statutes,” he said.
Jordan Weissmann is an older journalist at Yahoo Finance.
