Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
A man appointed by President Trump to a high-ranking position at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau once claimed that most reported hate crimes are hoaxes and questioned whether using the N-word is really racist. Eric Blankenstein, a policy director tasked with enforcing laws against financial discrimination, admitted to making the statements in question but told The Washington Post on Wednesday the “14-year-old blog posts” have no effect on his work at the agency today. Blankenstein made the previously unreported comments under a pen name on a political blog he co-authored with other contributors several years ago. In one 2004 post, he reportedly called a University of Virginia initiative to crack down on intolerance “racial idiocy.” In another, he claimed that “hate-crime hoaxes are about three times as prevalent as actual hate crimes,” according to the Post.