Trump officials fire dozens of Chopra’s hires at CFPB

The Trump administration has fired dozens of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees who were hired during the Biden administration, notifying them via email that they were terminated Wednesday and citing an executive order signed by President Trump.

Just after 7 p.m. Wednesday, more than 100 CFPB employees received an email sent by Adam Martinez, the agency’s acting chief human capital officer, under the subject line “Termination of Temporary/Excepted Appointment,” sources said. 

“The purpose of this memorandum is to notify you that your employment will be terminated effective at the close of business on February 13, 2025, due to Executive Order Implementing The President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative – The White House dated February 11, 2025,” said the email, obtained by American Banker. 

The email was sent to all federal temporary or “term” employees, the majority of whom were hired by former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, including special advisors, fellows, financial analysts and technologists, sources said. Term appointments are used to fill positions expected to last longer than one year but less than four years. 

Some CFPB employees told American Banker that they were locked out of their computers within minutes of getting the email. Others said they were locked out of their computers without even knowing they had been fired. The email told employees that they will be sent a postage-paid box to return their CFPB ID badges, laptops, iPhones and other equipment. 

Employees who responded to the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program for federal workers were not terminated, according to several CFPB employees who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The deferred resignation program, known as “Fork in the Road,” has been spearheaded by Elon Musk, who is serving as Trump’s top advisor for reducing federal spending. The program, which gave civil service employees the option to resign and get paid until Sept. 30, is now closed. 

It is unclear if the CFPB employees who were fired will be paid merit bonuses, which come in lump-sum payments and are typically are received in the first two months of the year based on the previous year’s employment and performance, sources said. 

The CFPB did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment. The bureau’s public relations team has not responded to American Banker’s media requests since Feb. 3, when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant was named acting director following Chopra’s firing on Feb. 1 by President Trump.

The latest round of firings comes just days after acting CFPB Director Russell Vought fired more than 70 probationary employees, who had been hired at the CFPB in the past two years, many of them enforcement attorneys. Vought has been working with Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to cut the federal workforce, purportedly to pay for an extension of Trump’s signature 2017 tax cuts.

The first round of firings have been challenged in court by the National Treasury Employees Union, the city of Baltimore and consumer groups. One of the lawsuits seeks a temporary restraining order against Vought to stop the firings on the grounds that Trump illegally appointed him to lead the CFPB. 

“The courts will strike down this illegal and unconstitutional maneuver,” Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a press release. “The good news is, none of this is up to Musk and Trump. The CFPB is enshrined in law — a direct response to the last great financial crisis — and it is Congress and Congress only that could choose to eliminate it.”

Musk and DOGE gained access to the CFPB’s computer systems last Friday, the same day that Vought was named by President Trump to lead the CFPB. One day earlier, Vought was confirmed by the Senate to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. 

On Monday, the White House nominated Jonathan McKernan, a former Republican board member at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., to be the CFPB’s permanent director, pending Senate confirmation.

In the past week, Vought has terminated 150 CFPB contracts, including those with consumer groups responsible for handling complaints against financial institutions and expert witnesses who are scheduled to testify in cases moving toward trial, according to lawyers familiar with the matter. The confusion and chaos created by the firings and contract terminations suggests the CFPB is planning to withdraw or drop many — if not all — of its legal cases that are still in pending litigation, lawyers said. 

In the termination email, CFPB employees were told that they could appeal their firings to the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that serves the employee appeals function of the Civil Service Commission. The board also reviews the actions of the Office of Personnel Management, which advised all federal agencies to fire probationary employees after it stopped accepting new offers for its deferred resignation program.

On Wednesday, the White House fired the head of the Merit Systems Protection Board, demoted its vice chairman and installed a new acting chairman.