Top Biden-Era CFPB Officials Pushed Out Amid Work Freeze (2)

Several top officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are stepping down or were placed on leave, the latest leadership turnover at the agency as the Trump administration orders a near-total shutdown.

Lorelei Salas, the CFPB’s supervision director, and Eric Halperin, the agency’s enforcement chief, announced Tuesday they were stepping down from their posts, according to emails obtained by Bloomberg Law.

Mark Paoletta, serving as the CFPB’s chief legal officer, put Salas and Halperin on administrative leave before they sent their emails to CFPB staff, an agency spokesperson said. Paoletta accused Halperin of insubordination for countermanding an order to stop enforcement work, the spokesperson said.

Halperin has submitted his official letter of resignation, while Salas has yet to do so, the spokesperson said.

The CFPB’s deputy director, Zixta Martinez, was also put on administrative leave, the spokesperson said.

The personnel changes come as acting CFPB Director Russell Vought has put all agency operations on hold. Paoletta also said in an email to enforcement staff Monday that the agency was taking a new enforcement posture and attorneys were barred from communicating with companies they are litigating against or investigating.

Both Salas and Halperin cited Vought’s orders in their resignation emails.

“I do not believe it is appropriate, nor lawful, to stop all supervisory activities and examinations,” Salas said in her email.

Salas and Halperin were among former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra’s first hires when he took over the agency in October 2021.

Salas joined the CFPB after spending more than four years as commissioner of New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Halperin, a former Justice Department fair-lending official, served as the executive director of Civil Rights Corps, a legal defense nonprofit group, prior to taking on the enforcement director role.

Vought’s order to stop work meant Halperin didn’t think he could “effectively serve in my role, which is protecting American consumers,” he said in his email.

“As I’ve said to you in the past, the road to justice for consumers is long, progress is not always linear, and success requires many hands,” Halperin said. “Your work has made an incredible difference in people’s lives.”

CFPB Freeze

Trump appointed Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to lead the CFPB on an acting basis on Feb. 7.

Among his first moves, Vought expanded a stop-work order put in place by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had been the acting CFPB director after Trump fired Chopra in late January. The updated order covered supervision and enforcement probes, effectively brought the CFPB to a complete standstill.

Vought over the weekend told staff not to go into work for the entire week while the CFPB’s Washington headquarters was shuttered. On Monday, Vought instructed CFPB employees to do nothing while the office was closed.

Musk Descends

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency descended upon the CFPB on Feb. 6. The DOGE team has access to all of the CFPB’s computer systems and data, including personal data on CFPB employees, confidential supervisory information and enforcement documents for companies the CFPB regulates, and customer data.

Musk posted “CFPB RIP” with a tombstone emoji next to it on his X social media platform on Feb. 7.

Musk is developing X into a payments app in conjunction with Visa Inc.

Consumer advocates and Democratic lawmakers are raising concerns that the Trump administration is looking to effectively shut down the CFPB without the consent of Congress, similar to how it suspended theUS Agency for International Development.

The CFPB’s union has sued to block DOGE’s access to sensitive agency documents and to halt the stop-work orders.