According to American Bridge calculations using Center for Responsive Politics data, as a member of the U.S. House, Mick Mulvaney accepted $683,973 in campaign contributions from the financial sector, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has regulatory powers over.

While in Congress, Mulvaney Mulvaney said that the CFPB should not even exist, and called the agency a “sick, sad” joke. The 29 million Americans who’ve received almost $12 billion in relief thanks to the CFPB’s enforcement work against financial sector abuses would disagree.

“You couldn’t make this up. Trump’s choice to take over the CFPB, Mick Mulvaney, called the agency a ‘joke’ as he took hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the financial sector it regulates,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. “Trump has outright admittedhis plan is to cripple this independent watchdog in order to increase Wall Street profits. This is more proof that the Trump Administration is selling out the middle class and further flooding the swamp.”

On Friday, Donald Trump attempted to illegally appoint one of his top economic advisers, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, to be the interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a critical independent watchdog agency created after the 2008 financial crisis to safeguard Americans from deceptive and reckless practices on the part of Wall Street and predatory lenders.

What’s more, the Trump Administration lawyer who supplied the legal rationale for installing Mulvaney as the interim head of the CFPB previously represented payday lenders in front of the CFPB.