Mick Mulvaney will remain as interim Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and Leandra English will continue as deputy director of the agency – for now – following a ruling Tuesday by a federal judge.
U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly, in Washington, sided with the administration of President Donald Trump in deciding that Mulvaney, appointed Friday by Trump to be interim director, the rightful director of the agency.
Kelly ruled on a request brought by bureau Deputy Director Leandra English, who claimed that she should be the interim director of the bureau. She asserted that when she was named deputy director by former Director Richard Cordray (the same day he formally resigned), the law establishing the consumer bureau made her director once Cordray left office.
However, that same day, Trump named Mulvaney interim director. The White House asserted that the president had the power to do so under the 1988 Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which give the president power to fill vacancies at federal agencies.