In a somewhat unsurprising decision, President Trump won a legal fight over who gets to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (at least for now).
As Bloomberg reports, Trump's budget director Mick Mulvaney can remain as temporary head of the agency, a federal judge ruled in rejecting a request to block the move fromLeandra English, who was named to the role by the departing director.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington rebuffed English, who sued to Nov. 26, contending she is entitled to the provisional post.
Kelly, who has been on the bench since only September, is a Trump nominee who previously worked for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and also served as a federal prosecutor.
The judge’s ruling came after hearing from both sides Tuesday.
A day earlier, attorneys for English and the Justice Department had spent about 40 minutes trying to persuade him.
Joining the fight on English’s behalf were about two dozen current and former members of Congress who told Kelly the president’s choice of his White House budget director to temporarily helm the CFPB threatened the agency’s ability to operate independently as designed.
Among those who joined in that filing, former U.S. Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who co-authored the Dodd-Frank legislation with former Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd.
As The Hill reports, the ruling clears the way for Mulvaney to run the CFPB until a permanent director is sworn in or English successfully appeals the decision.
Trump 1 - 0 Resistance.