FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 7, 2025

CONTACT: Carter Dougherty, carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org

AFREF Seeks Information About Musk Team at CFPB
New FOIA request covers data on employment, possible conflicts of interest

Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, a coalition of over 200 public interest groups fighting for a fairer financial system, today demanded answers from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about the reported presence at the agency of three representatives of Elon Musk’s so-called DOGE team.

According to the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents workers at the CFPB, the names of three people associated with DOGE – Chris Young, Nikhil Rajpal and Gavin Kliger – appeared on the agency’s staff directory on Thursday evening at 6pm. AFREF submitted a request seeking information under the Freedom of Information Act today.

“Given the track record of Musk’s minions so far at other government agencies, the public needs to know as soon as possible what these three people are doing at CFPB and what its impact is on the mission of consumer protection that Congress set for the agency,” said Christine Chen Zinner, consumer policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. “The CFPB is a guardian of sensitive financial data, much of it entrusted to the agency by people who needed – and got – help from the agency.”

“The CFPB has put $6 billion dollars back into peoples’ pockets in just the last three years, a vivid testament to the importance of its work,” said Amanda Jackson, consumer campaigns director at AFREF. “Be they Black, brown, white, middle-class, or poor, CFPB has delivered for people time and again, day in and day out. We can’t let DOGE stop or even interrupt the CFPB’s vital work.”

The AFREF request includes demands for basic contact information and copies of communications between these employees and the White House and the Department of the Treasury, since Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is currently the acting director of CFPB.

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