The Justice Department told a federal appeals court on Friday that President Trump should have the authority to fire the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but stopped short of asking for the bureau to be abolished.
As expected after the presidential election last year, the Justice Department under Attorney General Jeff Sessions sided with PHH Corp., a nonbank mortgage lender and servicer, against the CFPB over the agency’s 2014 enforcement action against the firm.
In a 33-page brief, the Justice Department argued that the president should be able to remove a single agency head, which was “meaningfully different” from a multimember commission.
