WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge overseeing a lawsuit aimed at stopping the Trump administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau heard testimony Monday about the chaos that erupted inside the agency last month after government employees were ordered to stop working.
The bureau’s chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, said the agency was in “wind-down mode” after President Donald Trump fired its previous director, Rohit Chopra, on Feb. 1. Trump installed a temporary replacement who ordered the immediate suspension of all agency operations, cancelled $100 million dollars in contracts and fired 70 employees.
The agency is performing work required by law, but a “stop work” order for its employees remains in place, Martinez testified. Asked to describe the current state of the agency operations, Martinez said, “I don’t want to say, ‘normal,’ but we’re operating.”
“I think there’s hope. I have hope for the future,” Martinez said. “I think people want to go back to work, and they want to do the work they were hired to do.”
Martinez is scheduled to resume testifying Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson scheduled Monday’s hearing to gain a better sense of what is happening inside the agency and to determine if the administration is still trying to eliminate it. Lawyers for agency employees want the judge to block any mass firings. Jackson indicated that she will issue a ruling later this month.
At the start of the hearing, the judge said she had heard “conflicting visions” on what is actually happening on the ground level since Trump appointed Russell Vought, his budget chief, to serve as the bureau’s acting director.
Martinez said the agency’s current leaders have adopted a more methodical approach than they initially did last month, when representatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency arrived at its Washington headquarters.
“We had adults at the table that were able to talk through these issues,” Martinez said.
Martinez said the bureau was expecting two DOGE engineers to arrive at the agency’s headquarters on Feb 6, four days before the building was shut down amid protests. But he recalled that Christopher Young, a DOGE official detailed from the Office of Personnel Management, showed up alone that evening because the engineers believed they were being followed.
“That was the first indication that something was off,” Martinez said.
Martinez said DOGE representatives asked for and received “very specific access” to the agency’s systems and operational data.
“It seemed like an audit almost of our operational functions,” he said.
Martinez said CFPB employees began circling the hallway outside a basement conference room that DOGE representatives were using. Somebody with a baby carriage appeared to be taking pictures of them through a window, he recalled. An employee who entered the room began questioning people around the conference table, asking them what they were doing and taking photos of their laptops, Martinez said.
“It was very contentious,” Martinez said. “Four security guards were called down to see what was happening.”
CFPB is responsible for protecting consumers from financial fraud and deceptive practices. Congress created the bureau after the 2008 financial crisis. It processes consumer complaints and examines banks to protect student loan borrowers.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents more than 1,000 workers at the bureau, sued on Feb. 9 to block mass firings. Plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that the administration doesn’t have the constitutional authority to eliminate an agency that Congress created by statute.
Government lawyers have said the plaintiffs are seeking to impermissibly place the CFPB in a “judicially managed receivership,” with the court overseeing its day-to-day operations.
Martinez said a majority of canceled contracts have been reactivated. The judge asked him if the administration was canceling contracts in a “shoot first and ask questions later” manner.
“That’s what it felt like,” Martinez responded.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP