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A staffer with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency allegedly helped conduct April layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, including the dismissal of the same ethics lawyers who reportedly warned him days earlier over his stock holdings in companies that were barred under ethics rules.
In early April, agency ethics lawyers warned Gavin Kliger, 25, that his stock holdings included companies on the agency’s “Prohibited Holdings” list, ProPublica reports.
Kliger, who has reportedly been at the consumer watchdog agency with DOGE since March, holds two cryptocurrencies as well as stock in Apple, Tesla, Google parent Alphabet, Berkshire Hathaway, and Alibaba, according to disclosures and a review by ProPublica. Taken together, the holdings are worth as much as $715,000.
By April 17, mass layoffs were underway at the agency, including the bureau’s ethics officer and the official’s entire team of lawyers, according to court records.
In the lead-up to the firings, which are being challenged in court, Kliger spoke with senior officials about getting administrative permissions that would help him “manage and execute” the reduction in force, according to the records.
The White House insisted to ProPublica that Kliger “did not even manage” the layoffs, “making this entire narrative an outright lie.”
An anonymous official at the consumer agency filed a sworn declaration that Kliger was directly involved, claiming that he “kept the team up for 36 hours straight to ensure that the notices would go out yesterday (April 17).”
The official added: “Gavin was screaming at people he did not believe were working fast enough to ensure they could go out on this compressed timeline, calling them incompetent.”
The Independent has contacted Kliger for comment.
Kliger previously made headlines over reports that before his government role, he boosted controversial content on social media, including posts from white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
In late April, a federal appeals court paused the Trump administration’s attempt to fire about 90 percent of the consumer agency’s workforce in the face of a lawsuit from an employee union and consumer advocates.
Two watchdogs, the Government Accountability Office and the agency’s own Office of the Inspector General, are reviewing DOGE actions at the CFPB, Representative Maxine Waters announced this week.
