Elon Musk’s DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, has targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a longtime Republican target, in the weeks since President Trump took office again.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), is a watchdog organization whose job it is to shield customers against dishonest lending practices and financial crimes. It is being criticized by Musk since CFPB would be in close watch on one of Musk’s new projects.
Its head has now been fired, and employees have been instructed to remain at home. All work has stopped and doors have been locked.
The fired head, Rohit Chopra, who was formerly employed by Mr. Trump at the Federal Trade Commission during his first term in office, said he finds the targeting of the CFPB “suspicious.” The CFPB is a small agency that regulates some of the largest and most influential businesses in the world, including large banks and tech firms venturing into the financial technology space.
“They would want a situation where the agency is a lapdog rather than a watchdog,” Chopra said.
Musk has a conflict of interest with CFPB
Earlier this month, Mr. Trump stated in the Oval Office that he intended to abolish the CFPB completely “because we are trying to get rid of waste fraud and abuse.” The president gave Musk and DOGE the task of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.
However, Musk may have conflicts of interest if an agency that oversees tech businesses is abolished, particularly in light of DOGE’s secrecy, which Musk denies.
“I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization,” Musk said in the Oval Office on Feb. 11.
He claimed that if he was acting in a way that would help one of his businesses, it would be clear. But many people do not see it as clear-cut or transparent. A group of young guys who are associated with DOGE were granted extensive access to the bureau’s computers, but the American public is unaware of their purpose or what they are doing with the files.
Before being let off less than two weeks ago, Hanna Hickman worked as a bureau attorney. She said she had heard DOGE employees were camped out in the CFPB basement.
“They’ve got papers up on the windows to keep people from looking in. And they’ve been accessing data, certainly,” she said.
What type of data is on computers at CFPB for which DOGE team has been given full access?
The bureau began vigorously supervising digital banking firms and products in recent years. In light of Musk’s announcement that he is launching a new digital payment platform called X Money, it has a wealth of information on them on its systems.
“He’s potentially able to gain access to files of his competitors like Venmo and Cash App. He is able to take out the regulator that would’ve been the watchdog for his company,” Hickman said. “I guess it’s easier to fire us than it is to beat us in court.”
However, a number of sources claim that the crew was given unheard-of access to CFPB data systems, including private bank records, which typically calls for background checks and training.
According to Hickman, all CFPB employees must pass a thorough background investigation.
“It includes a detailed run of our background, fingerprints, talking to neighbors and friends to make sure we are who we say we are,” she said. “It’s a process that takes at least a couple of months before you’re hired.”
The CFPB’s chief operating officer gave a sworn declaration saying the DOGE team members were “provided privacy and cyber security training” and signed non-disclosure agreements.
In response, the CFPB’s chief technologist, who just resigned, wrote that the training alone would be insufficient, noting that there was also “no mention of DOGE employees undergoing a background investigation.”
Among the top-ranking civil servants to depart the CFPB were Lorelei Salas and Eric Halperin, who expressed their disgust at the thought of someone searching through the agency’s private documents. Both resigned after being put on administrative leave.
“I’m worried about your account number, your social security number being out there,” Salas said.
“We do have information – both proprietary business information, trade secret information and personal identifiable information for consumers that we collected in the course of our work, that was necessary to do our work,” Halperin said.
What is the current status of business activities at CFPB?
Three hours after the DOGE team swept in on Feb. 7, Musk posted “CFPB RIP” on X, alongside a picture of a gravestone. Mr. Trump appointed Russ Vought, an ardent critic of the bureau, as its acting director. Vought announced on X he would stop funding the agency.
“This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off,” Vought said.
Soon, the firings started. Hickman and nearly 200 of her colleagues found out through a mass email.
This story was first published cbsnews.com, read the full story here.