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President Donald Trump’s administration still plans to fire all workers at the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, effectively neutralizing it, according to witness testimony delivered Tuesday.
The testimony runs counter to CFPB court filings, according to which the agency would continue to exist only in a “streamlined” form, as a judge has temporarily blocked it from continuing with mass dismissals.
However a witness, an agency official who testified Tuesday in a Washington courtroom under a pseudonym for fear of retaliation, said she was privy to conversations with the Office of Personnel Management this month at which officials were still discussing firing all agency workers.
“On the 4th, it was mostly about a cost estimate for the final phase” for firing any remaining workers after as many as 1,200 workers are dismissed, said the witness.
“This was last Tuesday?” asked Deepak Gupta, a lawyer representing an employee union, consumer advocates and others challenging the administration’s moves against the CFPB.
“Yes,” the witness answered, adding that she was unaware of any change in plans to wind down the CFPB entirely.
She appeared under the pseudonym “Alex Doe” and explained that she feared retaliation for providing her testimony.
Representatives for the CFPB and OPM did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Unlike the government position taken in court papers, Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk have said the consumer financial watchdog should be eliminated. Trump has accused the agency of politicized enforcement and the CFPB has been reviled by conservatives and the financial services industry, which have accused it of overreach and overzealous enforcement actions.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs have said scrapping the agency in this manner defies the powers of Congress, which created the agency in 2010 and would be the sole authority able to abolish it.
Justice Department lawyers argue that Trump officials have acted within their authority and are working to comply with relevant laws.
The witness also said officials with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency had pressured CFPB officials in mid-February to proceed more quickly in processing bulk notices of employee firings as a court hearing approached at which a judge could order a halt to the firings.
Lawyers representing the National Treasury Employees Union and others are seeking a court order directing the Trump administration to undo the actions it has taken so far in dismissing about 200 workers, placing remaining staff on leave and canceling service contracts, among other measures. A judge has yet to rule on the matter after two days of testimony.

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday called on military chiefs from across Europe and beyond to draw up a plan “to define credible security guarantees” for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, the presidency said.
His appeal, in a closed-door Paris meeting of top brass from more than 30 allied states, came as Ukraine endorsed an American proposal for a month-long ceasefire and agreed to immediate negotiations with Russia, in pivotal talks in Saudi Arabia.
Macron has sought to rally a European response to Washington’s shock policy shift in US-Russia relations.
The Paris meeting gathered representatives from 34 countries — most of them from Europe and NATO, but also from Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
There was no representative from the United States, which is the leading member of NATO.
“This is the moment when Europe must throw its full weight behind Ukraine, and itself,” Macron told the meeting, according to the Elysee.
“In view of the acceleration of peace negotiations,” it was necessary to start planning to “define credible security guarantees” to make a lasting peace in Ukraine a reality, the French presidency reported Macron as saying.
Macron has teamed up with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to lead efforts to form a “coalition of the willing” to enforce an eventual ceasefire in Ukraine.
According to the Elysee, the military chiefs of staff from European and NATO nations — including Britain and Turkiye — agreed that the security guarantees “should not be separated from NATO and its capabilities.”
Such guarantees should be “credible and long-term, and should be accompanied by unfailing support for the Ukrainian army,” according to the Elysee.
More than three years since Russia invaded its neighbor, Europe is scrambling to boost its defenses and break free from dependence on the United States.
It has been unsettled by Trump renewing contacts with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, raising fears that the US president may try to force Ukraine to accept a settlement favoring Russia.
Trump suspended military aid and intelligence-sharing with Kyiv, though his administration late on Tuesday indicated it would lift the freeze after Ukraine endorsed then American proposal.
Macron later posted on X that “the ball is now clearly in Russia’s court,” and hailed the “progress” made in peace talks in Saudi Arabia.
Ahead of the Paris defense meeting, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said: “We will reject any form of demilitarization of Ukraine.”
“It is simply a question of looking ahead and thinking about what the Ukrainian army should be in the future,” Lecornu added.
On Friday, the French president, who has pushed his country’s defense industry to switch to “war economy mode,” is set to meet with defense manufacturers, according to a member of his team.
Defense ministers from Europe’s five main military powers — France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Poland — are to meet in the French capital on Wednesday. EU and NATO representatives and the Ukrainian defense minister will also take part.
Those talks will center on the “necessary rearmament of Europe” and military support to Ukraine, one of Lecornu’s aides said.
Starmer will, in turn, host virtual talks on Saturday with leaders of the nations willing to help support the ceasefire.
Macron has said any European troops in Ukraine would be deployed only “once a peace deal is signed, to guarantee it is fully respected.”
He has also said he would be ready to discuss extending France’s nuclear deterrent to European partners.
Last week, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a plan to mobilize around 800 billion euros ($843 billion) for Europe’s defense and help provide “immediate” military support for Ukraine.
France also plans to raise defense spending, with Lecornu referring to a target of around 100 billion euros ($109 bn) a year, compared to 50.5 billion euros in 2025.