Mulvaney: I Gave More Access to Lobbyists Who Gave Me More Money
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tonight the New York Times reports that CFPB “Acting Director” Mick Mulvaney told a room full of bank executives and lobbyists to donate to bank-friendly legislators. The report also included this startling confession:
“We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” Mr. Mulvaney, a former Republican lawmaker from South Carolina, told 1,300 bankers and lobbyists at an American Bankers Association conference in Washington. “If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.”
In response, consumer watchdog organization Allied Progress released the following statement from its executive director, Karl Frisch:
“Mick Mulvaney’s frank confession to a room full of big bank lobbyists is more than just troubling — he appears to be admitting to a pay-to-play scheme that could put him in legal jeopardy. No one is above the law. Mulvaney must be held accountable for this unacceptable behavior which casts a dark cloud over his actions at the CFPB where he has made one decision after another that benefit the Wall Street special interests that bankrolled his congressional career with more than $1.2 million in campaign cash.”
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