Mulvaney gets new Twitter account, tells CFPB staff again to ignore deputy director

White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney ramped up efforts to take over the helm of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Tuesday amid a bitter fight for control of the agency.

Mulvaney again directed staff to disregard instructions from the agency’s deputy director, Leandra English, his second such memo telling employees to ignore communications from the top official.

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“Consistent with my email from yesterday, please disregard any email sent by, or instructions you receive from, Ms. English when she is purporting to act as the Acting Director,” Mulvaney wrote in an email to CFPB staff on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Mulvaney also sported a new Twitter account on Tuesday, using the handle @CFPBDirector. The only tweet from the account so far shows Mulvaney pouring over paperwork at the agency.

Busy day at the @CFPB. Digging into the details. pic.twitter.com/yfs0gmh28F

— Mick Mulvaney (@CFPBDirector) November 28, 2017 

A fierce legal fight has erupted at the CFPB in recent days over who is rightfully in control of the agency following former Director Richard Cordray’s resignation last week.

Cordray promoted English to serve as the agency’s deputy director in the hours before his resignation on Friday. Under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, which established the CFPB, the deputy director is supposed to assume control of the agency in the absence of a permanent director.

But shortly after English was promoted, President Trump appointed Mulvaney as the agency’s interim director. The White House and the Justice Department have defended that move, saying that Trump has the authority to do so under the 1998 Federal Vacancies Act.

As of Tuesday, the CFPB’s website lists Mulvaney as the agency’s acting director, while English is listed as its deputy director.

English sued the Trump administration in federal court on Monday over Mulvaney’s appointment to the CFPB.