Several employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said in a series of court filings Thursday that the Trump administration plans to “wind down” the agency, appearing to directly contradict the administration’s claims earlier this week.
Officials at the consumer watchdog told staff in recent days they intend to eliminate all but five employees and transfer the CFPB’s statutorily required functions to other agencies, according to court documents.
“On multiple occasions, staff were told by Senior Executives that ‘the writing was on the wall’ and that ‘it was all over but the terminations,’” said one employee, identified by the pseudonym Drew Doe.
“One Senior Executive said that CFPB will become a ‘room at Treasury, White House, or Federal Reserve with five men and a phone in it,’” the same employee added.
The series of declarations from agency employees come after the Trump administration denied allegations that it was attempting to eliminate the agency. In a court filing Monday, Justice Department lawyers argued the administration’s recent actions and comments indicate the CFPB will continue to exist.
They pointed to President Trump’s recent decision to nominate Jonathan McKernan to serve as CFPB director, and acting director Russell Vought’s statement that leadership intends to “run a substantially more streamline and efficient bureau.”
“The predicate to running a ‘more streamlined and efficient bureau’ is that there will continue to be a CFPB,” the DOJ wrote.
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and several outside groups are suing Vought, who was also confirmed earlier this month as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, over what they have described as the “wholesale dismantling” of the agency. Earlier this month, Vought ordered CFPB staff to halt all work, terminated about a hundred employees and closed the agency’s headquarters.
After the union raised concerns that the administration was preparing to conduct mass layoffs and potentially delete the agency’s data, a federal judge temporarily barred officials from firing staff without cause or deleting and removing data.
A CFPB employee identified by the pseudonym Alex Doe said Thursday that the agency’s chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, told staff they planned to fire about 1,200 employees before the CFPB would “reduce altogether.” The agency had just over 1,700 employees as of 2024.
Termination notices were set to go out on Feb. 14 but were halted by the court’s order that same day, the employee said.
The staffer identified as Drew Doe also said employees associated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tech billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team, who received access to CFPB systems and data did not complete required training and did not sign documents outlining rules governing the use of these systems and data.
