Missouri student loan service provider emails expose 'partisan hack job' Republican lawsuit: report

17 June 2023

Recently leaked emails contain Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (Mohela) staffers' questions on why the student loan service provider is targeted in the state's GOP-led lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness proposal, The Guardian reports.

Per The Guardian, Mohela "is at the center of the challenge by the GOP-led states, claiming the loan service provider would lose revenue and face negative impacts over its financial obligations to Missouri. Consumer advocates, meanwhile, have pointed out that Mohela stands to gain revenue from Biden's cancellation plan."

The emails, released by the Student Borrower Protection Center, according to the news outlet, echo United States Supreme Court justices' questions regarding "why Mohela did not bring its own legal challenges to Biden's debt cancellation plan and how the Republican-led states could claim harm on their behalf."

According to The Guardian, Student Borrower Protection Center research and policy analyst, Ella Azoulay, said "the emails confirmed the 'partisan hack job' of Missouri's lawsuit to block student debt relief."

In September 2022, a Mohela staffer wrote, "The [Missouri] state AG needed to claim that our borrowers were harmed for standing, so they’re making us look bad by filing this not only with [Missouri] on it, but especially bad because they filed it in [Missouri]."

The following month, another employee asked, "Just out of curiosity, is MOHELA apart of the lawsuit going on to prevent the loan forgiveness? Are we the bad guys?'"

Another staffer replied, "Mohela isn't technically a part of that lawsuit, the Missouri AG is suing on their behalf. However, it's all about the [Family Federal Education Loans] stuff, and since they changed the rules, that lawsuit should be ruled as lacking standing."

The Guardian's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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