Gurbir Grewal, the attorney general of New Jersey, is ready to fill the void that was left by the sudden resignation of Eric Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York.
Grewal has joined with a number of other Democratic state attorneys general to take on President Trump and his administration in areas where they feel the federal government is being too lax. In just four months on the job, Grewal has joined or started 30 actions against President Trump and the federal government.
Grewal’s position as a key player among Democratic state AGs is elevated because President Trump is very closely tied to The Garden State, owning and having operated many properties there. Grewal is also the highest-ranking Sikh in the history of American government.
Many in the ARM industry have expected attorneys general at the state level, especially those who are Democrats, to ramp up their consumer protection enforcement activities in what they feel is a void that has been created by a new regime at the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Other AGs, such as Maura Healy in Massachusetts, Xavier Becerra in California, and Lisa Madigan in Illinois have become more vocal in their opposition to the Trump administration’s policies. A number of states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, have started their own CFPB-like agencies to police consumer protection laws and regulations in their backyards.
Grewal says there are other issues he would rather be tackling, but because of the issues he is seeing Washington not dealing with, his focus has shifted.
“I’d rather be improving police-community relations, I’d rather be working on the opioid crisis, I’d rather be in schools taking about bias or addressing those types of issues,” Grewal said. “We have to do this.”
