Mnuchin To Congress: I’m Not The ‘King Of Foreclosures’

Steve Mnuchin Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman July 28, 2017

Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin faced a tough hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday when he was grilled about his days a banker. Mnuchin was the head of OneWest Bank, one of the leading providers of mortgages that became unsustainable after the 2008 economic meltdown and led to many foreclosures.

“I take great offense to anybody that calls me the foreclosure king,” Mnuchin said during a testy exchange with Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison during a House Financial Services Committee hearing.

Ellison pressed Mnuchin on whether under his leadership, OneWest engaged in a practice known as “robosigning” in which mortgage papers were signed without examination and without making sure the lenders understood the financial liability they are taking on. He confronted Mnuchin with a 2009 testimony of the bank’s vice president in which she admitted not spending more than 30 seconds on each mortgage request and not having the papers notarized.

“I don’t think you know what robosigning is,” Mnuchin shot back at Ellison.

When later asked by Rep. Maxine Waters to apologize to Ellison, Mnuchin refused, saying that robosigning was not a legal term and that Ellison has “harassed” him with his questioning.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO