US

EXCLUSIVE: Exposed Richard Cordray Texts Contain Worrying CFPB-Lobbyist Connections

REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Justin Caruso Contributor
Font Size:

Text messages obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) show director Richard Cordray’s communications with Clinton donor and lobbyist Eileen Mancera.

The Daily Caller exclusively broke news of Richard Cordray’s likely illegal use of a private device for communications with other CFPB staffers last month, concealing his messages from FOIA requests.

Documents exclusively obtained by TheDC show that Cordray used a private device for communications and seemingly did not back them up or copy an official device, thus attempting to conceal them from public view. Now, it seems Cordray was attempting to use a private device to conceal his messages–to conceal communications with high-level lobbyists and donors.

An analysis of Cordray’s text messages with other CFPB staffers, obtained via a FOIA request, show him communicating with then-CFPB staffer Rohit Chopra, directing him to talk to Eileen Mancera. Chopra is also a former senior fellow at the John Podesta-founded, George Soros-funded, Center for American Progress (CAP). (RELATED: George Soros, Big Banks And Google Fund Anti-Trump Resistance Group)

The first message, from Cordray to Chopra, reads, “I would appreciate if you could do me a favor. A lawyer I know in Florida has a colleague who spent several weeks lobbying in the Florida legislature honey she’s relating to student loans. He thinks she has some useful perspective that would be worth shari” (rest of message is cut off).

Chopra responds, “Of course,” then says, “Eileen’s phone number didn’t come through…”

Then, Cordray sends him a message that is redacted with a “(b)(6),” meaning its private information, presumably Mancera’s phone number.

Chopra responds saying, “Got it, thanks.”

Then Cordray says, “Eileen Kotecki Mancera, apparently. I have not met her before.” Finally, Chopra says, “Spoke to her briefly, she was tied up but grateful to hear from me and that she would reach back soon.”

All texts can be viewed in this spreadsheet.

Mancera, also known as “Eileen Kotecki” or “Eileen Kotecki Mancera” is a lobbyist with longtime ties to the Democratic Party. Mancera’s bio at Kayne Anderson, where she currently works, reads in part:

Prior to joining Kayne Anderson in 2016, Mrs. Mancera was the managing director of business development at Venor Capital Management in New York. Prior to Venor, Eileen was the managing director of investor relations for Morgan Creek Capital Management, where she led institutional initiatives for the marketing group. Additionally, she founded Juniper Capital Group in 2001, a registered broker/dealer placement firm that raised capital in the alternative investment space including private equity, venture and hedge fund strategies.

Before joining the financial sector, Eileen spent 15 years in public service as a political fundraiser and strategist. Her most recent role in the public service space was serving as the national finance director for Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000. Eileen is a former board member of High Water Women, Women Thrive and NY NASP boards.

Mancera is also a prominent Hillary Clinton donor, and has been listed, along with others, on a list of “Hillblazers,” or someone who has raised $100,000 or more for her 2016 campaign.

Mancera has popped up in the press before. In a (now deleted) Bloomberg article from years ago, she is mentioned:

After raising more than $1 billion for Democratic candidates, Eileen Kotecki transformed herself into a marketer for hedge funds and private-equity firms, eventually racking up more than $6.5 billion in sales.

Within weeks of wrapping up the 2000 campaign, Kotecki’s own attorneys said later in a lawsuit, she had begun “seeking to exploit” an “impressive network of contacts” gained in part from “extensive experience as a political fundraiser” to sell investment services to public pension funds and endowments.

She also pops up in an article for Internation Business Times (IBT):

Pension officials are bound by strict fiduciary statutes to base their investment decisions purely on financial considerations — not political calculations or personal relationships. Yet one job of many placement agents is to leverage personal relationships to help their clients obtain pension investments–regardless of whether those investments are the most prudent for the particular pension fund.

The lucrative placement agent business has drawn in an array of powerbrokers and celebrities who have little financial experience but who can open doors — from Democratic fundraiser Eileen Kotecki to onetime New York Comptroller H. Carl McCall to former NFL star Lynn Swann.

Mancera has made a career out of using personal and political relationships for financial gain. And she was in communication with Rohit Chopra and Richard Cordray, members of a powerful government bureaucracy about student loan policy.

Mancera’s communication with CFPB about student loans occurred in May 2015.

Then, in 2016, Mancera joined Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, a firm which would be clearly affected by student loan policy, as they are a self-described “premier investor in the off-campus student housing sector,” that has “developed and/or sold more than $3 billion in student housing communities encompassing more than 50,000 beds across 46 universities in 25 states and Canada.”

This news comes as Richard Cordray’s future looks increasingly uncertain. In a USA Today op-ed, Ben Sasse called for Cordray’s firing, and the watchdog group Cause of Action Institute has expanded on TheDC’s reporting to further publicize Cordray’s possibly illegal behavior.

It is not clear if President Trump is able to fire Cordray at will, but he can, however, be removed with cause.

Follow Justin on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel