WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Three former senior enforcement lawyers at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are launching a "strategic enforcement project" to help protect the public from corporate misconduct following President Donald Trump's clampdown at the agency, a pro-consumer organization announced on Wednesday.

Former top CFPB enforcement lawyers Eric Halperin, Cara Petersen and Tara Mikkilineni will spearhead the effort to bring new litigation "to challenge products and practices that exploit workers, consumers and small business owners," according to a statement from Protect Borrowers.

THE TAKE

The effort underscores the work by consumer advocates and Democratic attorneys general to pick up the slack left by the virtual collapse of the CFPB. Claiming the agency had engaged in politicized enforcement and should be abolished, the Trump administration neutralized the CFPB this year, idling its enforcement and supervision divisions and dropping enforcement actions, among other major changes.

KEY QUOTE

"Indicators of deep economic pain for workers and consumers are flashing bright red, even as corporate profits are skyrocketing. This is not a coincidence. With no federal enforcement apparatus to ensure corporations are held accountable to the public, it's only too easy for corporations to fleece consumers to line their pocketbooks," Halperin, the CFPB's former enforcement director, said in the statement.