House Democrats cast doubt Friday on the Trump administration’s oversight of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s former bank, calling for more congressional scrutiny into agencies’ investigations.
Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, joined with Rep. Al Green of Texas, the top Democrat on the oversight subcommittee, asked for the committee to conduct its own investigation into the administration’s probes of OneWest, the bank that Mnuchin previously ran.
The bank’s handling of foreclosures in the wake of the financial crisis was a top focus of Democrats during Mnuchin’s confirmation hearings and is set to receive further scrutiny with Trump’s nomination of the bank’s former CEO, Joseph Otting, to be a top bank regulator.
“As it stands, there is room for considerable doubt as to the impartiality and the adequacy of this administration’s investigations into OneWest and Financial Freedom, and this committee must act swiftly to take a close look at these issues,” the two lawmakers said in a letter to Republican committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas.
Specifically, they criticized the Department of Justice’s announcement in May that it had reached a settlement with a OneWest subsidiary for its handling of reverse mortgages. The Justice Department, they said, didn’t include enough information about the settlement to conclude whether it was fair. The Democrats also flagged that there is reportedly an ongoing Department of Housing and Urban Development probe into the subsidiary’s servicing of reverse mortgages.
The panel’s Democrats have sought to use their influence to highlight potential conflicts of interest between the Trump administration and the financial industry. The have pressed Deutsche Bank, one of President Trump’s creditors, for information about Trump’s ties to Russia.
