Posted on 11/29/2017 6:01:52 AM PST by sdthree
Secret donors are financing the lawsuit against President Donald Trump and White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney over who runs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Deepak Gupta, the lead lawyer of a boutique law firm that launched its suit on behalf of CFPB acting director Leandra English, confirmed in a CNBC interview that English is not paying for his hourly fees, but rather unknown anonymous donors are.
Gupta refused to name who is funding the lawsuit, making it difficult to ascertain the motives, intentions, or any special interests of those underwriting the case.
The D.C. lawyer appeared caught off guard when CNBC hosts asked who was financing his effort. He stumbled over his words in his first answer and said some form of unidentified “structure” was being put in place to accept funds from anonymous donors.
“Well, uh, it’s, it’s not, um, Miss, um English, um, ah. There are ethics lawyers that we’ve consulted, and we have a structure set up that is with ethics rules and, um, we’ll and we’ll be talking about that once we have that,” he told CNBC.
When repeatedly asked who is paying for the case, which could go all the way to the Supreme Court, Gupta answered, “It’s just not appropriate for me to be talking about that right now.”
CNBC’s host asked Gupta if his firm is handling the case pro bono. “No. We’re not,” Gupta replied.
Gupta previously worked for Ralph Nader’s litigation group, which historically has always demanded openness and transparency from government entities.
Trump installed Mulvaney as CFPB acting director after former director Richard Cordray stepped down over the Thanksgiving weekend. Cordray named English his successor before stepping down, leading to the battle for control of the agency that is the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former President Barack Obama.
English claims she is “rightful acting director,” and the case is now before U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly.
CFPB did not finance the case and the bureau’s own lawyers do not support English’s argument.
Mary E. McLeod, the CFPB’s internal general counsel, said she sided with the White House in the dispute, according to the Washington Post.
“I advise all Bureau personnel to act consistently with the understanding that Director Mulvaney is the Acting Director of the CFPB,” she told employees.
Gupta repeatedly refused to identify any of the donors. His law firm, Gupta Wessler, is known as the “anti-Trump” law firm in the nation’s capital.
Former U.S. Attorney Joseph DiGenova said Gupta and English’s reliance on anonymous donors “really focuses on the dangers of not having full accountability for the expenditure of funds for this type of litigation.”
“The usual suspects like Styer and Soros could well be funding this. However, from a government accountability point, this is ‘Bad Government 101,” he said.
It is unclear if some of the financiers are billionaire liberal donors such as George Soros or Tom Steyer.
“The lack of transparency, which Democrats ordinarily would be all over it, I’m sure are just thrilled about this for the moment. It’s utterly disgraceful,” he added.
“We don’t know if some of the funds are coming from the financial institutions or organizations she’s regulating. We don’t know who it is. In which case, that would be criminal.”
DiGenova said the presiding judge could ask English who is financing her litigation effort.
The DCNF contacted Gupta on Monday, but he declined to return our calls.
A little late with this one don’t you think?
Secret? You mean George Soros????
Am I missing something, isn’t this over? The judge ruled yesterday that Mulvaney has the job courtesy of President Trump!
All the Democrat groups who Obama financed through the CFPB slush fund, such as Planned Parenthood and the environmental scam groups, no doubt are chipping in to keep their funding. This unconstitutional agency should never have been created and should be shut down by Congress. Why has the GOP not done that???
No. The judge ruled against immediate relief. He still has to hear the case if English chooses to proceed with it. Great odds that she’ll lose at district, but then there’s an appeal. Then Scotus. By then, though, a permanent replacement will have been confirmed as head of cfpb
“The judge ruled yesterday that Mulvaney has the job courtesy of President Trump!”
I believe that ruling is being appealed.
I am glad she is doing this.
It is making the CFPB more prominent than it ever was.
What the heck is this entity? If the libtards are freaking out over it this much, there must be something they don’t want us to look into.
Well, actually the judge just denied English's request for an injunction preventing Mulvaney from taking over as acting director. The court will hear the actual case sometime in the future, although by then the point will be moot as Congress will most likely have confirmed a full time director.
"A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit from an official who claims that she, and not President Trump appointee Mick Mulvaney, is the rightful director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Judge Timothy Berry of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia declined to grant Leandra English a restraining order to bar Mulvaney from serving as the CFPB's acting director.
The ruling clears the way for Mulvaney to run the CFPB until a permanent director is sworn in or English successfully appeals the decision."
A little late with this one don’t you think?
?????
Shocked that CNBC even dared to ask Gupta the Leftist-Group-Lawyer who is financing his English case defense.
Now, if the rest of media...including FoxNews (Tucker, Hannity, Dobbs. etc) will run with this teed up ball.
This ‘structure’ ... form of unidentified “structure” was being put in place to accept funds from anonymous donors .... sounds about as shaking as 0blamy, himself.
Does anyone really know that the CFPB does or why we have a bureau working outside of the executive branch-or for that matter-the government? I’ve read their webpage and it really says nothing except it writes laws and returns billions to people.
some form of unidentified “structure” was being put in place to accept funds from anonymous donors.
Good then allege they are engaged in Money Laundering, go to the Grand Jury and get an Indictment, ARREST THEM and Seize the Records.
This is what would happen for ANY Regular Citizen in America.
At which point the entire matter becomes moot.
Under Obama it fined various financial firms and funneled the fines to leftwing activist groups.
Exactly. And, the district judge has no reason to expedite this case given this is at best temporary.
Any of the recipients of the $$BILLIONS in bank fines laundered through CFPB.
Those fine were completely unaccountable.
Liz Warren hates banks and created the CFPB to gut capitalism.
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