Secret Donors Are Financing Leandra English Lawsuit Against Trump
Richard Pollock
2:22 PM 11/28/2017

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.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/11/28/secret...-against-trump/

What is the CFPB ? A slush fund for radicals


CFPB Joins Justice In Shaking Down Banks For Democrat Activist Groups
6/17/2015

Extortion: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is diverting potentially millions of dollars in settlement payments for alleged victims of lending bias to a slush fund for poverty groups tied to the Democratic Party.

We've seen this before at the Justice Department, which Congress earlier this year scolded for "shortchanging" alleged victims of Bank of America and Citibank the same way. Justice funneled at least $150 million into a slush fund for Democratic interests, unconstitutionally avoiding Congress.

Now, a little-noticed item on the CFPB's website reveals the powerful new agency is launching its own scheme to provide backdoor funding for nonprofit urban groups politically aligned with Democrats.

The CFPB plans to create a so-called Civil Penalty Fund from its own shakedown operations targeting financial institutions. Through ramped-up (and trumped-up) anti-discrimination lawsuits and investigations, the agency will bankroll some 60 liberal nonprofits, many of whom are radical Acorn-style pressure groups. It says these organizations will provide "financial coaching" for low-income homebuyers, as well as "housing and social services."

But their activities are more political than charitable. IBD obtained a list of groups eligible for the bank payola, as approved by CFPB Director Richard Cordray and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. It includes:

• The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, whose directors include senior Democratic National Committee officials; the self-described "policy advocacy" group has lobbied Congress for more welfare spending at least 108 times since Obama took office.

• The Mississippi Center for Justice, whose stated mission is "advancing racial and economic justice" and "attacking predatory lending practices."

• People's Community Action Corp. of St. Louis, which has seated Obama appointees and Democrat lawmakers on its board.

The CFPB says the money will aid these and other left-wing groups in helping 45 million otherwise uncreditworthy, low-income people living in America obtain loans to buy cars and homes.

It complains that these mostly minority and immigrant consumers are "economically vulnerable" and "have limited access to mainstream financial services."

So in effect the government is forcing banks to fork over payola to radical nonprofit groups that exist to shake down banks for high-risk urban home loans — the kind of mortgages that defaulted in droves during the housing crisis. The money also restocks their war chest to lobby Congress for expansion of the disastrous Community Reinvestment Act.

Justice created a similar slush fund from discrimination lawsuits against banks to provide backdoor funding to nonprofit housing groups tied to Democrats, steering huge sums to affordable-housing activist groups approved by HUD, including:

• La Raza, which pressures banks to qualify more low-income Latino immigrants for home loans.

• National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Washington's most aggressive lobbyist for the CRA.

• Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, whose director calls himself a "bank terrorist."

• Operation Hope, a South Central Los Angeles group pressuring banks to make "dignity mortgages."

• Mutual Housing Association of New York, or MHANY, a spinoff of an Acorn housing unit.

Now the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is launching its own scheme to cut Democrat activist groups in on its own multimillion-dollar settlements.

Obama's Department of Housing and Urban Development is also getting in on the act.

In a $200 million settlement with Associated Bank, which the agency accused of lending discrimination, HUD is forcing the Wisconsin bank to funnel tens of millions in "donations" to "community groups."

This is extortion of private business by government. Congress' new leadership must call on the agency's inspector general and the Government Accountability Office to audit these pernicious payola schemes.


https://www.investors.com/politics/edito...ctivist-groups/

Sounds like CFPB has a business model similar to that of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition.