Sen. Elizabeth Warren will hold a forum for “victims” of foreclosures at the bank formerly run by Treasury nominee Steven Mnuchin on Capitol Hill just a day before Mnuchin’s confirmation hearing.
The Wednesday forum is the latest hardball tactic from the Massachusetts senator in opposing the nomination of Mnuchin, an advocate of deregulatory policies she opposes.
Initially, Senate Democrats had asked for people foreclosed on by Mnuchin’s former bank, OneWest, to testify at the hearing. But the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Orrin Hatch of Utah, denied that request, so Democrats are hosting a “forum” elsewhere at the Capitol.
Scheduled to appear are four former OneWest customers who have had their homes foreclosed on or are facing eviction.
Mnuchin served as the CEO of OneWest in the wake of the financial crisis, when, Democrats say, the bank was run as a “foreclosure machine,” kicking families out of homes abruptly and in some cases illegally. Mnuchin had joined with a group of investors to buy the bank, formerly known as IndyMac, after it failed during the crisis and was taken over by the federal government.
CIT Group, the holding company that bought OneWest in 2015 and of which Mnuchin was a board member, did not respond to the specific claims of the purported victims. A representative for the business merely said that it is “committed to meeting the credit and banking needs of borrowers in our communities.”
Democrats have focused on Mnuchin’s record at OneWest in rallying opposition to his nomination. As Treasury secretary, he would be responsible for regulating the financial system, setting tax policy, managing the federal debt, shaping trade deals and implementing financial sanctions on terrorists and rogue states.
