Betsy Devos could and should face jail but likely won't, just as crooked as the rest

[Themius]

https://www.latimes.com/business/sto...r-student-debt

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos faces potential sanctions or a finding that she’s in contempt of court for continuing to collect on the debt of former students at bankrupt Corinthian Colleges Inc., going so far as to seize their tax refunds and wages.

“I’m not sure if this is contempt or sanctions,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim told lawyers for the Education Department at a hearing Monday in San Francisco. “I’m not sending anyone to jail yet, but it’s good to know I have that ability.”

The judge said she was “astounded” that the department violated her June order to stop collecting the debts from students, who had been promised refunds of their tuition.

“At best it is gross negligence. At worst it’s an intentional flouting of my order,” Kim warned lawyers for the department.

Corinthian, once among the largest for-profit college chains in the country, faced a flood of government investigations and lawsuits alleging systemic fraud before it filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors in 2015.

In the aftermath, the federal government declared that as many as 335,000 former students could erase their loans by checking a box and signing their names on a simple form, under penalty of perjury. Doing so, the former students were told, would void their debt and prompt a refund on past payments.

The Education Department “takes responsibility” for the violations of Kim’s order, Charlie Merritt, a lawyer for the agency, told the judge. “We will bring ourselves into full compliance” and make sure the department “stays that way,” he adde

Kim ordered both sides to file arguments this month to assist in her final ruling on whether DeVos is in contempt.

In 2017, a group of former Corinthian students sued the Education Department and DeVos over claims that the department had stopped granting the loan discharges. The case was brought as a class action on behalf of about 80,000 students.

A report the department filed last month to show its compliance with the judge’s order to cease debt collections instead explained that the agency has seized tax refunds and wages from at least 1,808 students. Almost two years later, the department still hasn’t identified all the students in the lawsuit who are owed refunds, and it has processed refunds for only 10 of them, according to a court filing.

Reacting to the findings, Kim on Monday lifted a pause on the lawsuit against DeVos, ordering it to move “full-steam ahead” in tandem with a related suit filed by California despite the Education Department’s pending appeal of her rulings in the litigation.

“We think contempt is clear on the record presently before the court, and expect that the court will issue that finding, regardless of what sanctions are imposed,” said Eileen Connor, legal director at the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard University, which represents the students.

There truly does not seem to be a person in the administration that is not up to something that they should not be, it would be nice if she ends up in jail, but it likely will not happen, not to a person like Betsy.

[Saucexorzski]

Its hard for folks to post politics in the politics sub forum.

[zenkai]

https://www.latimes.com/business/sto...r-student-debt



There truly does not seem to be a person in the administration that is not up to something that they should not be, it would be nice if she ends up in jail, but it likely will not happen, not to a person like Betsy.

Here is more information on the why. https://www.washingtonpost.com/educa...held-contempt/

Despite a court order barring the Education Department from collecting on the federal student loans of former Corinthian College students, the agency continued to pursue the debts. Some former students of the defunct for-profit college had their paychecks garnished. Others had their tax refunds seized by the federal government.

Judge rejects DeVos’s interpretation of order to halt partial student debt relief plan

Now, those students are demanding a federal judge hold Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.

“Secretary DeVos continues to show that she thinks she and the Department of Education are above the law,” said Toby Merrill, director at the Project on Predatory Student Lending, a legal-aid group representing the students. “Let’s be clear about the facts: The department admitted that it blatantly violated a court order that we won.”

In a September court filing, the Education Department revealed that more than 16,000 former Corinthian students “were incorrectly informed at one time or another … that they had payments due on their federal student loans” after a federal judge put a hold on collections in May 2018.
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The federal agency said it has since stopped pursuing nearly 15,000 of those borrowers but is still working to resolve the problem with the remaining borrowers. About 1,808 people lost wages or tax refunds as a result of the department’s actions. The agency is working with the Treasury Department to refund those borrowers, as well as others who made payments on their loans.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Justice Department attorneys representing DeVos and the Education Department argued in a court filing this week that sanctions are unwarranted because there was a “good faith” effort to comply with the order.

The case stems from DeVos’s decision in December 2017 to provide debt relief to former Corinthian students by comparing the average earnings of students in similar vocational programs. That earnings information was collected under the gainful-employment regulation, which penalizes career-training programs for producing too many graduates with more debt than they can repay.
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The Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard University and the Housing and Economic Rights Advocates group filed an injunction in March 2018 to stop the practice. They argue that the Education Department has no right to use the data, which is supplied by the Social Security Administration, for any purpose other than to evaluate vocational programs. The attorneys also say denying full relief to Corinthian students is illegal.

Education Dept.’s mishandling of student debt relief claims creating headaches for applicants

Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco agreed that the Trump administration violated privacy laws by using Social Security Administration data to calculate loan forgiveness but refrained from declaring the partial relief plan illegal. She banned the Education Department from using the earnings data to grant partial student debt relief to Corinthian students and halted collection on their loans.

She said the order will remain in place until the court can determine the proper course of action but noted that her ruling does not preclude DeVos from granting full relief to Corinthian students in the meantime.
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A 1995 law known as “borrower defense to repayment” gives the Education Department authority to cancel the federal debt of students whose colleges misled them about graduation or job placement rates to get them to enroll. The closure of Corinthian, a chain felled by charges of fraud and predatory lending, ushered in a flood of claims at the Education Department.

The Obama administration was slow to respond to the applications but started to make progress before leaving office. That momentum ended with President Trump’s election, with his administration refusing to take action until education officials could fully review procedures instituted under President Barack Obama.

Betsy DeVos takes action on backlog of student debt relief claims

DeVos started processing claims in December 2017, announcing the approval of 12,900 applications and denial of 8,600 claims from former Corinthian students. She said applicants would receive full loan forgiveness if their earnings are less than 50 percent of those of their peers. If their pay is at or above that threshold, the department would provide relief on a sliding scale.

Since the courts put a stop to that, the Education Department has not processed debt relief claims and has allowed the backlog to grow. As of June, there were more than 210,000 applications for debt relief sitting at the Education Department, according to the agency.

[the game]

it seems like you could at least have put this in the right forum

[Flarelaine]

Moved to Politics.

[Adam Jensen]

Eat the rich.

[Themius]

Five minutes of research will show you that she did nothing wrong, but keep on stoking the flames!

Judge doesn’t seem to agree

[shimerra]

Five minutes of research will show you that she did nothing wrong, but keep on stoking the flames!

Directly violating a judges order is nothing wrong? And I doubt you'd understand this issue after a solid year to research it as your full time job.

You clearly didn't take even the 5 minutes you said was necessary.

[pathora44]

Directly violating a judges order is nothing wrong? And I doubt you'd understand this issue after a solid year to research it as your full time job.

You clearly didn't take even the 5 minutes you said was necessary.

Laws are for the Democrats and disloyal Republicans they hold no sway over Republicans loyal to Trump.

[Easo]

Five minutes of research will show you that she did nothing wrong, but keep on stoking the flames!

How is ignoring judge's order right? Tell us, please.

[Themius]

How is ignoring judge's order right? Tell us, please.

"Trump picked her!" This seems to often be the argument... "they were picked by a republican therefore nothing they do is illegal"

[Shadowferal]

Five minutes of research will show you that she did nothing wrong, but keep on stoking the flames!

Maybe you should have taken 5mins yourself...violating a judge's order is typically wrong. But then you follow the GOP so breakiing the law is apprently not wrong to you unless you're a liberal.

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“I’m not trying to be punitive,” she said. “I just want to make sure that the students are helped.”

Most of the case, which is in the federal district court in San Francisco, has been on hold since the Trump administration appealed Kim’s preliminary ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in July 2018.

But on Monday, Kim granted the Corinthian students’ requests to end the pause in the case.

The Education Department had opposed moving ahead with the case during the appeal.

"I'm so concerned about this violation of the order that I think the stay is gone,” Kim said. “And also because the 9th Circuit hasn't ruled, and I'm not going to wait around for them any longer.”

“We're going to do everything full speed ahead from this point forward,” she added.



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I would love to hear Devos get picked up and sent to jail.

[Orbitus]

Five minutes of research will show you that she did nothing wrong, but keep on stoking the flames!

Add this to the list of you being wrong, AGAIN.

[Xeones]

Five minutes of research will show you that she did nothing wrong, but keep on stoking the flames!

Should I believe your nonsense or the judge?

I think I'll go with the judge.

[Orbitus]

Should I believe your nonsense or the judge?

I think I'll go with the judge.

A guy that doesn't know shit, versus a judge that is well versed in the law, on legal matters. Yeah, not going with Shanknasty in that scenario.

[Breccia]

Five minutes of research will show you that she did nothing wrong, but keep on stoking the flames!

UPDATE: The Department of Education has now been fined $100,000 for collecting debts despite the judge saying they couldn't.

There is no question that the defendants violated the preliminary injunction. There is also no question that [the] defendants’ violations harmed individual borrowers.

Defendants have not provided evidence that they were unable to comply with the preliminary injunction, and the evidence shows only minimal efforts to comply.

For the record, that didn't take me five minutes.

[noidentity]

UPDATE: The Department of Education has now been fined $100,000 for collecting debts despite the judge saying they couldn't.



For the record, that didn't take me five minutes.

Yup, she was found to be in contempt and the taxpayers get to pay the fine.

Yay

[Flarelaine]

Yup, she was found to be in contempt and the taxpayers get to pay the fine.

Yay

Is there a possibility for a later secretary to sue her for this?

[Mormolyce]

I love that they took pains to point out that she'll be fined, but that the taxpayer will foot the bill.

She's worth over $5 billion incidentally.

[Breccia]

Is there a possibility for a later secretary to sue her for this?

I mean, the Department is already being sued.