Trump pick wins ruling in tug-of-war at top of agency

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump scored a victory Tuesday when a federal judge refused to block the president’s choice to temporarily run the nation’s top consumer financial watchdog and, for the moment, ended a two-way battle for leadership of the agency.

Judge Timothy Kelly declined to stop the president from putting Mick Mulvaney in place as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In doing so, Kelly ruled against Leandra English, the deputy director of the agency, who had requested an emergency restraining order to stop Mulvaney from becoming the acting director.

Both Mulvaney and English claimed to be the rightful acting director, with each citing different federal laws.

The leadership crisis developed over the weekend after the CFPB’S permanent director, Richard Cordray, resigned and appointed English as his successor. Shortly afterward, the White House announced that Mulvaney, currently budget director, would take over the CFPB on an interim basis.

The judge’s ruling Tuesday is not the final decision in the case. But in making his decision, the judge said that English had not shown a substantial likelihood that she eventually would succeed on the merits of her case. The judge’s decision is not immediately appealable.

Kelly was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate in September.

The CFPB was established after the financial crisis to make sure customers are not being exploited and that banks are complying with the consumer protection laws on the books.

Cordray, appointed by President Barack Obama, was criticized by congressional Republicans as being overzealous but lauded by consumer advocates for aggressively going after banks for wrongdoing.