Secrecy preceded the shutdown of the consumer protection agency's Washington headquarters

[February 11, 2025]  By CHRIS MEGERIAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Over the weekend, some staff members at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau saw a sign of trouble to come.

Windows in two basement conference rooms were covered with brown paper and blue painter's tape, concealing their occupants. Voices could be heard inside discussing cuts to government agencies. When the door was cracked open, there were young people with temporary badges.

It was fresh evidence that the agency, which was created to protect Americans from financial fraud, abuse and deceptive practices, was the newest target of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. Now the Washington headquarters is shut down for the week, and there are fears that it will be gutted like the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Pictures of the conference rooms were viewed by The Associated Press, and the scene was described by two current employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation. The secrecy contradicts insistence by the White House that Musk is transparently fulfilling President Donald Trump's goal of downsizing the federal government.

Trump defended his administration's broadside against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, saying it was "set up to destroy people.”

“We did the right thing," he told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.

Demonstrators gathered outside the bureau to criticize Trump and Musk, who has faced escalating scrutiny as DOGE spreads its reach across the federal government.

“Elon Musk, where are you?" said Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat. “We’re not afraid of you."

The White House is considering opportunities for Musk to talk publicly about his work for the first time since the billionaire entrepreneur joined the administration as a special government employee, according to an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal discussions.

So far, Musk has only defended himself on social media, saying he's confident that the American people will support DOGE's efforts. He also responded to accusations that he's improperly accessed sensitive information through government databases, saying “I’m 1000% more trustworthy than untold numbers of deep state bureaucrats and fraudsters.”

Russ Vought, Trump's budget chief, is serving as the CFBP's acting director after the previous director, Rohit Chopra, was fired by Trump. Vought sent an email to employees on Monday morning saying they should “not perform any work tasks.” They were directed to contact the top lawyer for the Office of Management and Budget “to get approval in writing" before doing anything.

Vought's message followed one on Saturday evening that ordered the bureau to “cease all supervision and examination activity.”

There are indications that the bureau's website is being disrupted. The homepage displays a “404: Page not found” message, although other parts still work.

A sign stands at the construction site for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's headquarters in Washington, Aug. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, file)

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents more than 1,000 workers at the bureau, filed a lawsuit saying that Vought's order illegally exceeded his authority.

“It is substantially likely that these initial directives are a precursor to a purge of CFPB’s workforce, which is now prohibited from fulfilling the agency’s statutory mission,” the lawsuit said.

The CFPB, was created after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Officials said that it has obtained nearly $20 billion in financial relief for U.S. consumers since its founding in the form of canceled debts, compensation and reduced loans.

“This is a fight between millions of hardworking people who just don’t want to get cheated and a handful of billionaires like Elon Musk, who wants the chance to cheat them,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who helped create the CFPB.

In recent years, the agency had passed rules capping bank overdraft fees, removing medical debt from consumer credit reports, regulating “buy now, pay later” loans, and requiring disclosures on short-term loans known as earned wage access. It has sued banks for misleading consumers and employers for misleading workers, with a particular focus on curbing junk fees and predatory lending under President Joe Biden's administration.

Banks and industry groups have sued to block some of these rules, claiming the agency has exceeded its regulatory authority. Conservatives and their financial backers have long targeted the bureau, contending it lacks sufficient supervision. However, the bureau's funding and oversight model was upheld by the Supreme Court in May.

On Friday night, Musk posted “CFPB RIP” on X, his social media platform. He added an emoji of a tombstone.

When another person expressed approval of the plan, Musk wrote "they did above zero good things, but still need to go.”

Since Congress created the CFPB, it would need to pass additional legislation to formally eliminate it. However, agency leadership can decide what enforcement actions to take.

Democrats and progressives expressed outrage over the Trump administration's decision to target the CFPB.

“Elon Musk and Russ Vought aren’t just testing the limits of the law — they’re shattering them, daring anyone to stop them," said Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of the activist group Indivisible. “This attack on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is illegal, unconstitutional, and a blatant power grab by billionaires who want to rig the system even further in their favor.”

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Associated Press writers Cora Lewis and Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

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