A former official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau "may have abused his authority" to counter an article from The Washington Post about some of his past comments, the Post reports.
Eric Blankenstein, a former policy director who oversaw the enforcement of fair lending laws, was the subject of a Post article published on September 26, 2018, regarding some of his blog posts from over a decade ago, in which he questioned whether special enforcement of hate crimes was necessary.
A recent investigation by the inspector general found that Blankenstein asked a subordinate, Patrice Ficklin, to write a statement supporting him which also "created the appearance of a violation" of ethics guidelines, according to the report, which was given the Post by the offices of Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
Ficklin told investigators that she felt she didn't have a choice about writing the statement, since her office was being overhauled by the then-acting director of the agency, Mick Mulvaney.
"There was no question that I was going to give a statement. I didn't feel I could say no because I needed to do that in order to preserve my program," she told investigators, adding that she was given little time to write the statement.
Blankenstein claimed that he asked Ficklin to write the statement as a favor, not an order. The inspector general determined that Blankenstein did not coerce Ficklin or abuse her time or commit gross mismanagement.
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