President Donald Trump suffered yet another setback in court on Friday, as a federal judge pumped the brakes on his move to tear down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reported Politico.
According to the report, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson "blocked the CFPB from terminating additional employees after the Trump administration this week fired dozens of agency workers, including an entire team of people scrutinizing Big Tech companies’ financial products. The order blocks the CFPB from terminating any employee," unless such employees engage in demonstrable poor performance or misconduct. The order also doesn't extend to "starting the process to lay off career agency employees."
The order also prohibits the Trump administration from destroying any of the data at the CFPB on consumer complaints or files on how financial institutions are keeping in compliance with federal regulations and laws.
ALSO READ: 'Making America less safe': Democrats warn of disaster as Trump purges the CIA
The CFPB, created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, is the only federal agency strictly dedicated to investigating misconduct by financial institutions against consumers.
Republicans have been fixated on eliminating the agency ever since its creation, and tech billionaire Elon Musk, currently advising Trump through his Department of Government Efficiency task force, has proclaimed the agency is dead under the new administration — which some analysts have argued is a conflict of interest as Musk soon plans to roll out financial services on his X platform.
The Trump administration's broader moves to terminate thousands of civil servants and withhold money from a raft of federal programs has run into a cascade of litigation, with several federal judges blocking the administration from taking various actions. This has led to Trump's allies mounting increasing verbal attacks on the judiciary, and potential open defiance of judicial orders.