Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Trump anti-discrimination official faces rebellion at agency over racially tinged blog posts
Last edited Sat Sep 29, 2018, 03:29 PM - Edit history (1)
David Fahrenthold Retweeted:Trump anti-discrimination official faces rebellion at agency over racially tinged blog posts
Link to tweet
Investigations
Trump anti-discrimination official faces rebellion at agency over racially tinged blog posts
By Robert O'Harrow Jr., Renae Merle and Shawn Boburg
September 28 at 7:44 PM
A senior Trump appointee at an agency responsible for enforcing laws against financial discrimination faced open rebellion from subordinates Friday over blog posts he wrote years ago expressing controversial views on the n-word and hate crimes, according to internal emails obtained by The Washington Post. ... The uproar came as two Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee and a national housing rights organization called for the departure of the appointee, Eric Blankenstein, a policy director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. ... The upheaval was triggered by a mass email from a senior civil servant who harshly criticized the writings, which The Post revealed and linked to Blankenstein in a report Wednesday. Writing under a pen name in 2004, Blankenstein questioned whether the n-word was inherently racist and claimed that the great majority of hate crimes were hoaxes.
“The tone and framing are deeply disturbing to me as a woman, African American, advocate for LGBTQ rights, and human being,” Patrice A. Ficklin, a career staffer and director of the Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, wrote to hundreds of agency employees. ... Earlier in the week, Blankenstein asked Ficklin, his subordinate, to write a supportive note about him for The Post’s initial story. In her email Friday, Ficklin said she had not read Blankenstein’s blog when she did so. “After the article appeared, I began to read his posts and was struck by how they reminded me of debates we’ve had with Eric on supervisory and enforcement matters,” she wrote.
“And while he has been collegial, thoughtful and meticulous, I have had experiences that have raised concerns that are now quite alarming in light of the content of his blog posts — experiences that call into question Eric’s ability and intent to carry out his and his Acting Director’s repeated yet unsubstantiated commitment to a continued strong fair lending program under governing legal precedent,” she wrote. ... Career employees rallied swiftly around Ficklin, sending supportive emails agency-wide, according to multiple emails obtained by The Post.
The CFPB has been a target of the Trump administration. In February, Mick Mulvaney, its acting director, moved to strip enforcement powers from the fair-lending office — potentially reversing years of aggressive enforcement.
....
Robert O’Harrow Jr. is an investigative and accountability reporter at the The Washington Post. Follow https://twitter.com/robertoharrow
Renae Merle covers white-collar crime and Wall Street for The Washington Post. She has also worked for the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press. Follow https://twitter.com/renaemerle
Shawn Boburg is a reporter for The Washington Post's investigative unit. He was previously an accountability reporter for the Metro section. He joined The Post in 2015. Follow https://twitter.com/ShawnBoburg
....
© 1996-2018 The Washington Post
Trump anti-discrimination official faces rebellion at agency over racially tinged blog posts
By Robert O'Harrow Jr., Renae Merle and Shawn Boburg
September 28 at 7:44 PM
A senior Trump appointee at an agency responsible for enforcing laws against financial discrimination faced open rebellion from subordinates Friday over blog posts he wrote years ago expressing controversial views on the n-word and hate crimes, according to internal emails obtained by The Washington Post. ... The uproar came as two Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee and a national housing rights organization called for the departure of the appointee, Eric Blankenstein, a policy director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. ... The upheaval was triggered by a mass email from a senior civil servant who harshly criticized the writings, which The Post revealed and linked to Blankenstein in a report Wednesday. Writing under a pen name in 2004, Blankenstein questioned whether the n-word was inherently racist and claimed that the great majority of hate crimes were hoaxes.
“The tone and framing are deeply disturbing to me as a woman, African American, advocate for LGBTQ rights, and human being,” Patrice A. Ficklin, a career staffer and director of the Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, wrote to hundreds of agency employees. ... Earlier in the week, Blankenstein asked Ficklin, his subordinate, to write a supportive note about him for The Post’s initial story. In her email Friday, Ficklin said she had not read Blankenstein’s blog when she did so. “After the article appeared, I began to read his posts and was struck by how they reminded me of debates we’ve had with Eric on supervisory and enforcement matters,” she wrote.
“And while he has been collegial, thoughtful and meticulous, I have had experiences that have raised concerns that are now quite alarming in light of the content of his blog posts — experiences that call into question Eric’s ability and intent to carry out his and his Acting Director’s repeated yet unsubstantiated commitment to a continued strong fair lending program under governing legal precedent,” she wrote. ... Career employees rallied swiftly around Ficklin, sending supportive emails agency-wide, according to multiple emails obtained by The Post.
The CFPB has been a target of the Trump administration. In February, Mick Mulvaney, its acting director, moved to strip enforcement powers from the fair-lending office — potentially reversing years of aggressive enforcement.
....
Robert O’Harrow Jr. is an investigative and accountability reporter at the The Washington Post. Follow https://twitter.com/robertoharrow
Renae Merle covers white-collar crime and Wall Street for The Washington Post. She has also worked for the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press. Follow https://twitter.com/renaemerle
Shawn Boburg is a reporter for The Washington Post's investigative unit. He was previously an accountability reporter for the Metro section. He joined The Post in 2015. Follow https://twitter.com/ShawnBoburg
....
© 1996-2018 The Washington Post
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
