You might need seen Mark Paoletta’s title within the information just lately because of his function as performing chief authorized officer of the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau, which President Donald Trump is busy attempting to dismantle. Paoletta can be by some means the normal counsel for the Workplace of Administration and Price range, a job he held within the first Trump administration. You’d assume these would each be full-time gigs, however that’s simply since you don’t perceive authorities effectivity.
However Paoletta is so, a lot greater than only a lawyer keen to dismantle the federal government as a result of Trump says so. He’s additionally a longtime scumbag most notable for his ceaseless assist of Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas, and his spouse, Ginni.
In his present job, Paoletta has been main the hassle to fireplace roughly 1,400 CFPB workers, leaving a skeleton crew of about 200 folks. The Nationwide Treasury Staff Union sued to dam the firings and gained a preliminary injunction. The D.C. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals, nonetheless, mentioned CFPB may fireplace workers who company leaders “determined, after a particularized assessment, to be unnecessary to the performance of defendants’ statutory duties.”
Simply three days later, company leaders despatched termination notices to greater than 1,400 workers. An nameless CFPB worker informed the courtroom that the Division of Authorities Effectivity despatched over Gavin Kliger, who is generally notable for his enthusiasm for retweeting white supremacists like Nick Fuentes. Kliger, the declaration mentioned, made workers dealing with the firings look ahead to 36 hours straight and screamed at them when he thought they weren’t working quick sufficient.
What does all this should do with Paoletta? The staff being screamed at by Kliger raised issues that this didn’t appear to be a “particularized assessment.” They have been informed to relax as a result of Paoletta mentioned company management would assume the danger and that hitting the numbers was all that mattered.
Paoletta additionally filed a declaration stating that he had carried out a particularized evaluation and went “line by line through each competitive area” to determine what number of workers have been wanted to proceed CFPB’s statutorily required duties. Sure, Paoletta is saying he reviewed the general scope of the company AND the recordsdata of 1,400 workers in three days, making a particularized evaluation for every one.
It’s truthfully not attainable to overstate how offended these shenanigans made U.S. District Decide Amy Berman Jackson, who wrote that there was cause to imagine that “the defendants simply spent the days immediately following the Circuit’s relaxation of the Order dressing their RIF [reduction in force] in new clothes, and that they are thumbing their nose at both this Court and the Court of Appeals.” She’s ordered each Paoletta and Kliger to look in courtroom on Monday to testify in regards to the discount in pressure notices.
Nobody is aware of how Kliger will deal with himself on the stand, however Paoletta shall be simply high-quality. That’s not just because he’s an skilled lawyer, but in addition as a result of Paoletta is kind of adept at justifying the worst habits of highly effective folks, as he has basically made a profession out of that on the subject of the Thomases.
Paoletta’s devotion to Clarence Thomas stretches again to 1991, when he performed a job in Thomas’ affirmation listening to. In 2016, because the twenty fifth anniversary of that affirmation approached, Paoletta oversaw a public relations marketing campaign praising Thomas. For his efforts, he obtained a cool $300,000 from the Judicial Training Mission, a bunch funded by Leonard Leo, the billionaire conservative activist most chargeable for the present wretched state of the federal courts.
That PR marketing campaign led, years later, to a movie about Thomas, with Paoletta co-editing a e book of Thomas’ oh-so-inspiring phrases. Each the movie and the e book are known as “Created Equal.” Ugh.
Paoletta has additionally been one of many staunchest defenders of Thomas’ unimaginable achievements in being showered with treats by billionaires. When ProPublica broke the information that Thomas had accepted fancy journeys, personal jet flights, and yacht excursions from Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow for twenty years however had by no means bothered to reveal them as required, Paoletta instantly stepped up.
Paoletta wrote an article for the Nationwide Evaluate defending Thomas, explaining that Thomas completely did comply with monetary disclosure guidelines, and likewise that ProPublica reporting on Thomas’ historic stage of corruption was a part of a left-wing plot to destroy the Supreme Courtroom. After it got here to mild that Crow had additionally paid personal faculty tuition for Thomas’ nephew, Paoletta made certain to defend that as effectively, saying that since Crow paid the cash to the varsity instantly, it wasn’t a present Thomas needed to report.
Paoletta tends to omit the truth that he was already effectively conscious of Crow’s generosity to Thomas. Keep in mind the bizarre photo-realistic portray depicting Clarence Thomas hanging out with all of the Federalist Society attorneys and Harlan Crow at Crow’s fancy personal resort? Paoletta is in the course of that image, wanting rapturously at Thomas. Paoletta additionally accompanied Crow and the Thomases on an eight-day journey round Indonesia on Crow’s yacht in 2019.
Ginni Thomas additionally has Paoletta in her nook. He served as her private lawyer after her penchant for texting about how Trump gained the 2020 election drew the eye of the Home Jan. 6 committee. Paoletta initially argued that there was no cause for her to look earlier than the committee until it gave him a “better justification.”
Sure, why would it not be in any respect related to speak to the spouse of a sitting Supreme Courtroom justice who was at Trump’s rally on Jan. 6 earlier than his supporters stormed the Capitol, texted with Trump’s then-chief of employees Mark Meadows about voter fraud and maintain Trump in workplace, and emailed 29 Arizona state lawmakers about how they need to title electors for Trump regardless that Biden gained the state?
Paoletta defended all of this as “minimal and mainstream.” Ginni Thomas finally agreed to look earlier than the Jan. 6 committee, at which level she continued to insist that the election was stolen. So minimal and mainstream!
Paoletta additionally swooped in to guard her after it grew to become clear that Clarence Thomas isn’t alone in his love of shady cash. In 2023, the Washington Put up reported {that a} group Ginni Thomas ran, Crowdsourcers for Tradition and Liberty (what does that even imply??) obtained $600,000 in nameless donations funneled via a conservative assume tank. Paoletta got here to her rescue with an announcement about how she had “complied with all reporting and disclosure requirements.”
Paoletta won’t ever be as infamous as an Elon Musk or Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, or Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, however that doesn’t imply he’s not a scumbag. He’s only a much less flashy, extra skilled one. It takes all kinds to wreck democracy, and Paoletta is right here for it.
