Eric Blankenstein, who left the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after several of his past racist blog posts resurfaced, has a new job at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Politico first reported on Tuesday that HUD had hired Blankenstein to work for the agency’s Office of General Counsel. Starting Monday, he’ll be making a six-figure salary as a general counsel for the Government National Mortgage Association.
Blankenstein, a Trump appointee, came under fire in 2018 when it was discovered that he’d written blog posts claiming that most hate crimes were hoaxes and that using the N-word didn’t mean someone was racist. At the time, he worked for the CFPB’s Office of Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending – the agency that protects consumers from discrimination by banks. He resigned from the CFPB in May 2019.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, blasted HUD for the decision.
“The Department of Housing should be working to address housing discrimination across the country, not serving as a dumping ground for a disgraced, racist Trump appointee,” Brown told Politico in a statement.
HUD did not respond to TPM’s request for comment.
