Washington – A judge said in a ruling on Friday that the consumer financial protection office could not terminate employees without cause, hitting President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the agency.
The court order occurred in response to a lawsuit by the National Union of Treasury Employees and the Association of Employees of CFPB, among other groups, which sued the agency and its interim director Russell Vought this week. They had asked the judge to “declare illegal and leave aside the actions of the defendants and intended more actions to dismantle the CFPB.”
The ruling of the American district judge Amy Berman Jackson avoids any mass dismissal in the agency and prohibits the elimination of agency’s data.
“The defendants will not terminate any CFPB employee, except for the cause related to the performance or behavior of the specific employee; nor will the defendants issue any warning of force reduction to any CFPB employee,” the judge wrote.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments. The Media CFPB team also did not respond to a request for comments, although Vought issued a directive to employees last week so as not to issue public communications, among other instructions.
The Court file indicated that both parties agreed on the order.
The judge also ordered Vought and CFPB not to “take measures to reduce the amount of money available for the CFPB.”
VOUGHT had previously tried to cut additional CFPB funds. He said last week at X that notified the Federal Reserve that the office “will not take its next draw” of funds, arguing that it was not necessary to carry out the tasks of the office.
“This spike, which contributes for a long time to the lack of CFPB account, is now turning off,” he said in the position.
The ruling marks the latest in a series of blows to the efforts of the Trump administration to remodel the federal government.
Last week, Vought issued a series of directives to CFPB employees, instructing them to “cease all the supervision and examination activity”, “the entire participation of the interested parties ceases” and does not “approve or issue any proposed rule o Final or formal or informal orientation “, among other directives. CFPB employees also received instructions this week not to work.
Trump had previously presented his goal of getting rid of the office completely. When asked this week if he could confirm whether it was his goal to completely eliminate the office, Trump said: “I would say yes.”
“Because we are trying to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse,” he said. The administration has not yet provided evidence to support the accusations of fraud in CFPB.
The Trump administration has had multiple legal setbacks in recent days.
On Thursday, a judge ruled that the administration should temporarily allow the disbursement of foreign aid. A separate judge temporarily arrested plans to cut certain federal investigation funds.
But the administration also won a victory this week. On Wednesday, a judge ended a temporary break in the “Deferred Resignation” offer program of the White House that encouraged federal employees to resign.
