Democrat senators question what Elon Musk plans to do with sensitive CFPB data
cnbc.comDemocrat lawmakers led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday held a forum pushing back against the moves that the Trump administration and Elon Musk have taken to neutralize the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Guests at the event included a retired military veteran helped by the agency, a mortgage broker who said the CFPB has helped curb industry abuses, and the bureau's former head for supervision.
But the focus of the senators' attention was Elon Musk, the driving force behind the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. While Musk was invited to the Washington, D.C, event, according to Warren, he didn't make an appearance.
The lawmakers questioned whether Musk was conflicted in his efforts to dismantle the CFPB, highlighting his recent plan to launch a digital payments service within X, the social media network he owns.
«By seizing control of the agency, Musk can now root through all of the CFPB's confidential data that DOGE has accessed on these potential competitors,» Warren said. «As Musk launches his new app, he faces oversight from the CFPB. His plan seems to be to eliminate the watchdog.»
A representative for Musk and X didn't immediately respond to request for comment.
Earlier this month, operatives from DOGE gained access to CFPB systems, shortly before the bureau's new leadership shuttered the agency's headquarters, froze nearly all activities and laid off roughly 200 employees. A CFPB union has alleged in a lawsuit that acting CFPB Director Russell Vought intends to fire more than 95% of the agency's staff.
«Elon, how do you justify shutting down the agency that's going to be looking at your peer-to-peer payment plan?» Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D.-Minn., asked rhetorically during the
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