CFPB Official Who Challenged Mulvaney's Leadership Stepping Down

(Bloomberg) -- Leandra English is giving up her fight to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

English, who Democratic lawmakers have claimed for months is the rightful leader of the regulator, plans to step down next week and drop her lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s November decision to name Mick Mulvaney the CFPB’s acting director, her lawyer said in a Friday statement.

She decided to resign in light of President Donald Trump’s decision to nominate administration budget official Kathy Kraninger as the controversial agency’s permanent leader.

English became ensnared in a legal and political firestorm last year when the CFPB’s outgoing director Richard Cordray tried to put her in charge as he stepped down to run for governor of Ohio as a Democrat. The Trump administration balked, arguing that it had legal authority to install a temporary director, and the president appointed Office of Management and Budget Director Mulvaney atop the CFPB.

A federal court sided with the Trump administration last year, a ruling that English later appealed. Her lawyer said that she intends to file court papers formally on Monday to bring that litigation to a close.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Dexheimer in Washington at edexheimer@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jesse Westbrook at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net, Alexis Leondis

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