Judge pauses mass firings at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as she considers whether layoffs violated court order

A member of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency allegedly kept CFPB staffers working for 36 hours straight to send out mass layoff notices at the agency, screaming at those he thought weren’t working fast enough

A federal judge paused the Trump administration’s efforts to lay off nearly 1,500 of the 1,700 employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as she considers whether the mass firing violated a court order halting the dismantling of the agency. Judge Amy Berman Jackson will scrutinize the layoffs with an evidentiary hearing on April 28, during which there would be witness testimony, she said at an emergency hearing called Friday morning. She is ordering the administration to turn over internal documents and communications about the firings to the unions and other groups that have sued the administration over its efforts to take apart the agency. The mass layoff “is not going to happen in the meantime,” Jackson said in court. The Trump administration is appealing the order. The case is one of several where the Trump administration has been accused of violating court orders. Jackson said Friday she had “concerns” the new layoffs ran afoul of orders from her and a federal appeals court prohibiting mass terminations that would interfere with the ability of the agency, created by Congress in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, to meet its statutory obligations. The CFPB was an early target of the Trump administration’s downsizing efforts, but its undoing was largely blocked in federal court. Republicans have long wanted to close down the agency, whose creation was spearheaded by Elizabeth Warren, now a Democratic senator from Massachusetts. The CFPB’s new leadership has been reviewing the agency’s activities and staffing since February, Mark Paoletta, the agency’s chief legal officer, said in a declaration Friday. Previously, the CFPB’s activities have “pushed well beyond the limits of the law” and the agency has “engaged in intrusive and wasteful fishing expeditions.”