Richard Cordray’s CFPB Caught Funneling Tens of Millions In Federal Contracts To Democrat Ad Makers

After already facing serious questions over potential Hatch Act violations amid speculation that he may run for Ohio Governor in 2018, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray is now finding himself at the center of a new potential pay-to-play scandal involving government contracts and Democrat campaign insiders. A bombshell report by the Daily Caller reveals that GMMB, a top Democrat campaign ad firm, received nearly $60 million in federal contracts, the “overwhelming majority” of which went to the CFPB under Cordray. The most recent contract the CFPB gave the firm came just this past June when they awarded GMMB “the largest single government contract” it has ever received. Cordray chose GMMB despite having “multiple potential choices” that were “pre-approved for federal contracts.”

This report raises even more questions for Washington, D.C.’s most power-hungry bureaucrat. Did Richard Cordray use taxpayer money to reward a political ally? With disturbing revelations that he may have used his position at the CFPB to potentially put in place a pay-to-play scheme for a top Democrat campaign group, Cordray finds himself embroiled in yet another controversy as he continues to consider entering the Ohio governor’s race.

The Daily Caller reports:

“Former President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign advertising agency received nearly $60 million in federal contracts after he took office, according to an analysis by The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group…

The overwhelming majority of the $58 million funneled to GMMB came from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) created by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2011. The CFPB awarded the agency a whopping $43.7 million, about 75 percent of GMMB’s total federal funding stream…

The CFPB’s outsized role in payments to GMMB may fuel new controversy about the embattled bureau, which Warren came up with when she worked as an Obama appointee in the Department of the Treasury.

Congress and lower federal courts have charged CFPB’s operation is unconstitutional because its director, former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, can only be removed for “cause.” All other federal department and agency heads serve either at the president’s pleasure and can be removed at his will or for specified terms…

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican, also asked the U.S. Special Counsel in a July 28 letter to determine if Cordray’s preliminary steps in his upcoming campaign for Ohio governor mean he “engaged in prohibited political activities” under the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activities by federal employees…

Cordray initially hired GMMB on a series of smaller contracts in 2013, then in June 2017 awarded the political firm a new, lucrative $14.8 million contract. That award is the largest single government contract won by the Margolis firm since it first did business with the Obama administration…

CFPB did have multiple potential choices, as the General Services Administration’s schedule lists 209 registered advertising firms as pre-approved for federal contracts.”