The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau raced to terminate large numbers of its staff ahead of a February hearing where a federal judge in Washington weighed whether to delay those firings, new emails submitted in litigation over efforts to shutter the agency show.

Agency officials exchanged a flurry of emails ahead of a 2 p.m. hearing on Feb. 14 before Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia to consider a motion from plaintiffs seeking a temporary restraining order to block the firings.

The National Treasury Employees Union—which represents a significant chunk of the CFPB’s ...