In Possible Ethics Violation, Mnuchin Plugs Batman Film He Produced
Image by Getty Images
By Nathan Guttman March 24, 2017
Image by Getty Images
First, it was senior adviser Kellyanne Conway plugging Ivanka Trump’s clothing line in a live TV interview from the White House. Now it’s Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker who became a movie underwriter and was executive producer of “The Lego Batman Movie”.
“I’m not allowed to promote anything that I’m involved in,” Mnuchin said during a Friday morning event organized by Axios, before going on to do just that: “So I just want to have the legal disclosure, you’ve asked me the question, and I am not promoting any product. But you should send all your kids to ‘Lego Batman.’”
Did Mnuchin break federal government rules by promoting, even in a joking manner, his movie?
Norm Eisen, former ethics czar for President Obama, says yes.
ETHICS VIOLATION: appears Mnuchin just violated 5 CFR 2635.702—same transgression as Conway. That is what happens when WH looks other way. https://t.co/l3s8NS3ffg
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) March 24, 2017
Lego Batman has raked in more than $168 million in box offices sales so far.
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
