BACKSTORY:

Everything you need to know to understand the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau back-story is contrast against Mick Mulvaney and Leandra English today. Director Mulvaney goes to the CFPB office to review the CFPB transition guidance, while Leandra English runs to a meeting on capital hill with Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Mr. Mulvaney is focused on the job and tasks at hand. Ms. English is focused on the internal politics within DC. ‘Nuf said. Pretty obvious where each establishes their priorities.

Last night CFPB employee Leandra English (pictured above) filed a lawsuit to install herself as the acting director of the CFPB. This action was despite the legal guidance by the department’s own top lawyer Mary McLeod who informed all CFPB employees that President Trump has the legal authority to appoint the interim director of the agency:

(LINK TO THREE-PAGE MEMO)

(Via Reuters) […] Mulvaney and English both issued statements on Monday morning indicating they were in charge of the 1,600-employee CFPB. English sent an email in which she welcomed staff back from the Thanksgiving holiday and signed off as “acting director,” according to a source. But Mulvaney quickly installed himself in Cordray’s former office and stood his ground, writing an hour later: “Please disregard any instructions you receive from Ms. English in her presumed capacity as Acting Director,” he said in a staff memo seen by Reuters. “If you receive additional communications from her today … please inform the General Counsel.” Mulvaney also signed off as “acting director” and invited staff to pop by his fourth-floor office to “grab a donut.” Mulvaney’s communications director tweeted a picture of him “hard at work as acting director” with the bureau’s transition briefing handbook on his desk.

English was due to meet later on Monday with senior Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Warren, her office said. As Mulvaney was getting settled in, the source told Reuters, CFPB general counsel Mary McLeod sent a memo to the CFPB’s legal division agreeing with the U.S. Justice Department that Trump had the power to appoint Mulvaney as temporary leader of the watchdog. (read more)

U.S. Senator Tom Cotton reacts to Ms. English attempting to install herself as acting director for the CFPB:

Washington, D.C. – Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) tonight released the following statement on the recently filed lawsuit to install Leandra English as acting administrator of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a rogue, unconstitutional agency. Leandra English’s lawsuit to install herself as acting director against the president’s explicit direction is just the latest lawless action by the CFPB.

She doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on, as her own general counsel has conceded and the Department of Justice has concluded. The president should fire her immediately and anyone who disobeys Director Mulvaney’s orders should also be fired summarily. The Constitution and the law must prevail against the supposed resistance.” (link)



Leandra English's CFPB case has been assigned to Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump nominee who was confirmed to the bench in September. pic.twitter.com/9nlzl7nSER — Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) November 27, 2017

Just in: DC federal judge schedules a hearing for today at 4:30pm in the fight over who is leading the CFPB right now. Earlier: https://t.co/wWpzF6pehR pic.twitter.com/EI6YLe67lB — Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) November 27, 2017

The Daily Caller has a great write-up on the toxic political stew that exists within the CFPB as it was constructed by Senator Warren and Leandra English. It’s quite an eye-opener into the workplace:

EXCERPT: People know Mulvaney, but who is Leandra English? TheDCNF spoke to current and former employees of the embattled bureau about English and the culture she had created in her various positions. Many former and current CFPB employees told TheDCNF about their reactions to English receiving the acting director position. “Her rapid ascension within the CFPB and the series of promotions seems consistent with the CFPB culture, which is full of cronyism,” said one long-time former CFPB employee. “It was surprising because many hard-working employees had to file lawsuits and grievances just to get promoted one step at the CFPB,” the former official told TheDCNF in an interview. English, along with Warren, spearheaded a culture of secrecy within the bureau that appears to permeate throughout the agency and would later infuriate Congress. Warren and the Democratic Congress housed CFPB inside the Federal Reserve, which is independent of Congress. The transfer of CFPB into the Fed allowed the bureau to circumvent congressional oversight. Even its annual budget is outside of the regular congressional budget authorization process. Sources within the bureau say English actively promoted that effort of secrecy early in the bureau’s actual operations. Emails obtained by the conservative group Judicial Watch show English established meetings without any notification to the public and meetings that specifically barred press. The Judicial Watch emails also show English was active in arranging private meetings with special interests that were largely liberal and progressive activist groups. English was involved, for example, in organizing an Oct. 27, 2010, meeting that was led by Warren, who is now the Democratic senator from Massachusetts. The participants of that meeting included Consumers Union, the AFL-CIO, PIRG and the National People’s Action. It was closed to press. On Jan. 22, 2011, English helped CFPB hold another private meeting with Americans for Financial Reform, a pro-CFPB group with participants that constituted a Who’s Who of liberal activist groups. The meeting included leaders from the AFL-CIO, the SEIU (Service Employees International Union), Ralph Nader’s PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), Consumer Federation of America, Center for Responsible Lending, and Public Citizen. No press was permitted. (Read More to include the astronomic costs)

10am meeting between Acting Director @MickMulvaneyOMB and cfpb Senior Staff. pic.twitter.com/DbXq5xNnVj — john czwartacki (@CZ) November 27, 2017