Senate Democrats are asking the public for dirt on President-elect Trump’s pick for treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, a maneuver that indicates just how contentious the nomination is likely to be.
Democrats on Friday introduced a new website set up to solicit stories of abuse from customers of OneWest Bank, the bank that Mnuchin purchased from regulators at the height of the crisis and managed. Under Mnuchin’s leadership, the bank was accused of extremely aggressive foreclosure practices and of discriminating when it came to approving or rejecting new loans. His track record there is sure to be a focal point of Senate hearings.
“Donald Trump’s choice of Mnuchin is not only a fundamental betrayal of his promise to stand up to Wall Street — it is a punch in the gut to the thousands of American families who were thrown out of their homes by Mnuchin’s bank,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., one of the Democrats behind the site.
The site, a page on the Senate Democrats’ site without its own URL, calls Mnuchin “the foreclosure king” and accuses him of running a “foreclosure machine.” Past customers at his bank are invited to share their own stories of their treatment.
OneWest was the name of the former bank IndyMac, one of the larger commercial banks to fail during the crisis. With a team of investors, Mnuchin bought the bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation after it was taken into government custody. Mnuchin became CEO of the bank, under an atypical arrangement with the FDIC.
At the time, the bank’s treatment of borrowers was controversial, to the point that protesters showed up at Mnuchin’s Bel Air home.
