US judge temporarily blocks mass firings at consumer bureau

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Douglas Gillison

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A federal judge on Friday halted the mass firings carried out on Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying she was deeply concerned the Trump administration had violated court orders setting conditions on dismissals.

On Thursday, the agency fired between 1,400 and 1,500 workers, eliminating as much as 90% of its workforce.

A witness statement filed on Friday morning also accused senior officials and an administration official associated with billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency of disregarding the court’s orders.

The witness said the DOGE member Gavin Kliger also demanded staff work a 36-hour shift without breaks and verbally abused staff. However, the Office of Personnel Management, the government human resources office where Kliger works, rejected the allegations as “an outright lie,” asserting Kliger had not overseen the workforce reduction.

“These allegations are another attempt to diminish DOGE’s critical mission to (make) government more effective and efficient,” a spokesperson said.

An appeals court last week ordered that firings at the CFPB could only occur after a “particularized assessment.”

Mark Paoletta, the CFPB’s chief legal officer, said in a sworn statement the agency had followed court orders and had conducted a detailed assessment of staffing needs. This evaluation found the agency’s resources significantly exceeded both its needs and legal authorities, he said.

The White House and CFPB did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

However in a sworn declaration, Jennifer Bennett, an attorney representing an employee union suing the agency, said offices across the CFPB – including critical, legally required functions such as supervision, consumer complaints, and military service member affairs – had either had all or all but one person terminated.

President Donald Trump and Musk have called to abolish the agency, accusing it without providing evidence of politicized enforcement and waste, but administration officials have said in court the CFPB will persist in some form.

“I am deeply concerned given the scope and speed of the agency’s action … about whether the agency is now in compliance with the preliminary injunction,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said during a hearing called after Thursday’s dismissals.

Jackson ordered that Thursday’s mass dismissals be suspended pending a decision on whether the government is in violation of her order. She said CFPB employees would not lose access to computer systems on Friday evening, as agency leadership had told them in Thursday’s notices of dismissal.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Chris Reese)