A conservative outlet published a story today about the @CFPB payday memo @nickconfessore & I recently wrote about (story linked) insinuating that the memo was intentionally leaked days before the revised rule was expected to be released 1/5 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/business/cfpb-payday-loans-rules.html

Backstory: NYT learned of the memo's existence shortly after it was written, in Aug. I sent CFPB a FOIA on Aug 19 seeking a copy. I got some records, but the memo itself was withheld on 'deliberative process' grounds. Here's the denial CFPB sent me. 2/5 https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6950-cfpb-payday-memo-foia/8bbdd51419a853185fc2/optimized/full.pdf#page=1

NYT appealed the denial; we were rejected. Nick & I then started trying to get a copy from other sources. That took a bit. Someone finally passed it on. 3/5

THEN we spent several additional months investigating the claims in the memo, and contacting people named in it and people who worked with the memo's author, to figure out if it was credible. Our conclusion was that it was. 4/5

We published our reporting, and the memo, so readers (and other journalists!) could dig further.

Interesting footnote: CFPB was expected to release its revised payday rule last month. It hasn't yet. 5/5