In November 2024, the Biden administration’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) fined Townstone Financial, a small mortgage company in Chicago, Ill., $105,000 for statements the company’s owner had made about crime in the city. The police “are the only ones between that [area] turning into a real war zone and keeping it kind of where it’s at,” Barry Sturner said in 2016.
Now, the Trump administration is pressing a court for the green light to give the money back.
On Wednesday the CFPB asked the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to void the settlement agreement the Biden administration reached with Townstone, a move that would allow the bureau to return the money the company forked over to the government as part of the agreement. It is a belated mea culpa from an agency that nearly bankrupted a small business over political speech and comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing agency heads to “correct past misconduct … related to censorship.”
Former Rep. Dan Bishop (R., N.C.), the deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) who has been detailed to the CFPB, cited that order as the impetus for Wednesday’s motion, which argues that Townstone was unlawfully targeted for expressing “political viewpoints.” His conclusion was based on a review of agency records that have not been previously reported and provide a remarkable window into the partisanship of federal bureaucrats.
The case, which began during the first Trump administration, centered on a company-hosted radio show that Townstone used to advertise its services. In five episodes over a three-year period—0.33 percent of the company’s recorded content—the hosts had also made a handful of comments alluding to inner-city crime. […]
— Read More: freebeacon.com
