Update: January 27, 2017
This story has been updated with a comment from Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., has angrily responded to treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin’s false responses to questions submitted for the record to the Senate Finance Committee, stating that Mnuchin’s “answers to basic questions are at war with facts.” The Intercept called attention to those responses on Wednesday.
Casey had asked Mnuchin if OneWest Bank, which Mnuchin led from 2009 to 2015, engaged in “robo-signing” — a process by which employees rapidly signed off on affidavits and other documents in foreclosure cases without proper reviews, creating false evidence submitted to courtrooms and county offices.
Mnuchin claimed that OneWest did not robo-sign documents, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, including an admission of guilt from a OneWest employee in a 2009 deposition.
“This seems to be part of a pattern with Mr. Mnuchin,” Casey said in a statement emailed to The Intercept.
The senator referred to a question he asked during Mnuchin’s confirmation hearing, where the nominee stated that OneWest engaged in 100,000 home loan modifications. However, this number, taken from a 2013 Treasury Department report, refers only to “trial plan offers extended” under the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP. “The true number wasn’t even close to that,” Casey said correctly; as of the 2013 report, only about 36,000 of those modifications were even active, and that doesn’t count loans that later re-defaulted.
“Now,” Casey wrote, “Mr. Mnuchin denies the plain evidence that his financial institution engaged in robo-signing.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also slammed Mnuchin for lying. “Mnuchin ran a bank that was notorious for aggressively foreclosing on homeowners, and now he’s lying about his bank’s dismal track record in his official responses to the Finance Committee,” she said in a statement to The Intercept. “Working families simply cannot trust him to be the country’s top economic official.”
Casey re-submitted that question for the record on Wednesday, along with several others “which did not receive accurate or adequate responses.”
The amended question, provided to The Intercept, refers to the 2011 Reuters investigation, which found that OneWest and other banks “have filed foreclosure documents of questionable validity.” Casey also cited the 2011 consent order signed by OneWest, where government regulators found “critical weaknesses in governance, documentation and oversight” that resulted in “violations of applicable federal and state law and requirements.” That consent order also documented findings of robo-signing at OneWest, which the bank did not admit or deny.
In his initial response to Casey, Mnuchin also said that he was “proud of our institution’s extremely low error rate.” Casey took issue with this in his amended question. “OneWest had a 6 percent error rate for mortgages to members of the military protected by the Servicemember Civil Relief Act,” Casey wrote, referring to the practice of charging inflated interest rates to — and seeking foreclosure on — active-duty servicemembers while they were stationed overseas.
Overall, Casey continued, “These and other errors affected more than 5.6 percent of all borrowers, 10,700 homeowners. Do you believe an error rate of 6% is an appropriate level when someone’s home is in the balance?”
Casey demanded that Mnuchin submit new answers to his questions. “The treasury secretary must have a basic level of credibility, yet his answers put that into question,” he said.
It’s unclear whether Mnuchin’s practice of lying and stretching the truth will sway any other senators to turn against his confirmation as treasury secretary — particularly the Republicans who hold his fate in their hands. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., who asked tough questions about his state’s housing crisis that Mnuchin could not answer in the hearings, has not announced how he would vote.
If Heller voted against Mnuchin in the Finance Committee and all Democrats joined him, the committee vote would result in a 13-13 tie. However, in that case the Finance Committee could still report his nomination to the floor without a recommendation.
No vote has been scheduled on Mnuchin in the Finance Committee.
Top Photo: From left, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee members Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Al Franken, D-Minn., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., with during a confirmation hearing on Jan. 17, 2017, in Washington.
Can these senators at east inform the nominees that perjury is a crime? Like, before every sentence they utter.
It’s a shame and a letdown to see D-Day reduced to writing this low level spin. Mnuchin was confirmed by a large majority and the whining Clintonite’s display of righteousness just put them further into the losers category.
What we should have learned is that a statement by a possibly hostile employee and accusations are proof of nothing. I think all of these clowns are lawyers so they know this fact but were looking for Kabuki time to sooth the rubes at home and keep their vote. Clintonites still fighting for the oppressed, that’s hilarious.
“All” the Democrats will certainly not join him. They, along with their president, thoroughly enjoyed the foreclosure apocalypse. They certainly rewarded those doing the foreclosing more than handsomely. Why else offer the utterly false hope of HAMP, than to string things out and lure more in to the gently smiling jaws of Mnuchin and his gang of predator creditors.
No different than the 0bama administation, or the Bush’s, or the Clinton’s.
All too true. But there’s nothing so bracing as the maintenance of a tried, true, and consistent outlook on the situation.
So, this fraud knowingly lied to these Senators, and he will likely lie again, and he will very likely get the job? How many Dems are gonna go along for the ride on this one? I’d guess at least ten. We’ll see.
Great article, David Dayen.
It’s amazing the kind of sh*t the party in power accepts when it is their side’s nominees/leaders.
They have no fear; ergo, they will ALL go down together.
quote”Casey demanded that Mnuchin submit new answers to his questions. “The treasury secretary must have a basic level of credibility, yet his answers put that into question,” he said.”unquote
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Basic level of ..ahem..credibility. Hahahahahahahahaha.. hohohohohoohohoho… heehehehehehehehehehe… hahahaha hahah hah!
Dear Senator. Define “basic”. Is it .0000000000000001%? Or .0001% ? Or .1%..credibiliity?
sheeeezusfuckingchrist. If stupidity were weather you’d be a goddamned coast to coast 6.9 hurricane. Notwithstanding the Dumbest Country on the Planet.
Meanwhile, one of Mnuchins Wallstreet buddies corrects President SummerSquash’s election meme…
https://www.buzzfeed.com/miriamelder/davos-make-elites-great-again?utm_term=.fpbRPmGOG#.odOj9NRAR
Pikitty warned them. I think they might be getting nervous…
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich
At some point, “asked and answered” has to be the bar in believing someone. Saying “change your answer our you won’t be hired” isn’t adaptable. F$%^#ing nitwits. Even asking it means that the process is meaningless if you accept what is said next.
Edit: “adaptable” should be “acceptable”
Good article – thank you.
Sounds like Mnuchin will fit in with these eejuts………
Did you see them imprison anyone for the frau? NOPE…….and now they cry.
Could this not be prosecuted as perjury?
How about simply lying to Congress? That is a crime, even if not under oath.
Someone should tell Al Franken’s publicist that he got a freebie at the Intercept today-front and center in an article about a different senator-Senator…let me look at that picture again?
—interesting aside: Al Franken once said to me ” I would be glad to have your vote, but get out and vote!” and I couldn’t help but say “Thank you Senator Smalley! Because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and, doggonit, people like me! ”
—for a guy who made his career as a comedian doing shtick as Stuart Smalley, ya think he’da laffed, but nope.
committee chair: “You are here to be considered to head a most important position in the United States of America. We have questions for your very brief interview. Raise your right hand… Do you swear to tell the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth?”
nominee: “HELL NO.”
committee chair: “Fine. Please be seated so we can proceed to a vote where you will be confirmed.”
committee person: “Do you consider your experience in gov an asset to this position you seek?”
nominee: “Yes and no. i am highly qualified for this position. On the downside, i’m not fond of pepperoni on my pizza. What we really need is more money for defence of this department in case we are attacked by russia.”
cp: “This position is for secretary of green lawns. What’s that got to do with defence?”
nominee: “Lots. People across America have green lawns and we need to protect them from enemies everywhere – especially trespassers who frequently trample american lawns.”
Our experience with One West Bank was one Brazen Lie after another Brazen Lie.
We even have them in writing. Brazen Lies with No Consequences.
when might democratic accountability pertain to our intrepid politicians.
We’re being pounded each day, every hour on the hour, about this noble democracy, yet if one reaches a certain socio-economic status it triggers a ‘we can do or say pretty much whatever the fuck we want” clause.
Facts, history, irony, integrity, reality be damned…double…triple down on my lie…delay, corporate lawyer-up, lobby, re & un regulate, pay for play, ideological ring-kissing judges, buy off the academic
department and think tanks, shovel it all onto a bumper sticker and hand it over the the mass media stenographers who claim journalism as their profession.
It’s stagecraft, dysfunctional is in the rear-view mirror, it’s stinking and rotting, it’s in plain view to anyone capable of reading and not participating in the diversion of divide and distract…
Move beyond capitalism to re-democratizing structures of economics and politics.
Solutions are being discussed. Corporate media will evade and undermine those solutions.
If you do not understand, it doesn’t matter. Stand in SOLIDARITY against undemocratic, unjust, brokenness.
If your pockets are empty, no one is listening to your voice…stand TOGETHER and be heard.
It is time…
Article: Senator Demands Treasury Nominee Steve Mnuchin Tell the Truth About Robo-Signing
Pretty low-life reporting, Mr. Dayen. Thought up a story yet on how we should all be outraged when Mr. Mnuchin is confirmed?
Get back on your meds!
Pretty low life response to this quality article.
What are you on about?
If you’re not willing to tell senators the truth about your track record now (before you have the job, and especially when it’s so easy to catch lies like these), what makes senators think he’ll tell them the truth AFTER they vote him in?
Most of those senators couldn’t even recognize the truth, much less handle it.
They know he’s a liar. They just think he’s their liar.
CA state AG Kamala Harris’ decision not to prosecute Mnuchin’s mortgage banks/lenders that surround these lies has come back to haunt us, and it didn’t take long; the reason being the lack of prosecution after the housing bubble/bank crisis in the first pace that now made this behavior normal.
Speaking of not standing up for something consistently and the perils of compromise for compromise sake: Chelsea Manning highlights the simple reason why Obama’s (and, arguably, the neoliberal Democratic party altogether) has been a failure for progressive policies:
It really is as simple as that – and the Democrats still haven’t learned that lesson.
Democrats having learned that talking Progressive and acting Regressive brings in lots of money from all quarters.
And never accomplishing anything Progressive means that the money stream from the gullible never ends.
The problem is that by cheating us out of President Bernie the Democrats gave us a commander in chief who cannot distinguish between reality and his own hot air.
Hard driving and important questions being asked of Mnuchin by Senator’s Brown, Wyden, Casey. Relevant questions.
Talk about a case of the fox being asked to guard the hen house.
so you think that because a bank he bought had robo signing going on at the time of the purchase should disqualify him from this position even though he may or may not have oversaw the actual alleged and subsequently cleared charges post rebrand..OK? So the senators like to grandstand and your readers are being asked to eat up this nothing of an allegation. Really pretty weak stuff. Maybe focus on the other more abhorrent nominees rather than Mnuchin.
man…are you confused.
Yeah, I do think the criminal activities of the bank he ran should disqualify him. You think he didn’t know what was going on? That’s probably why he bought the bank in the first place. This guy is as abhorrent as the other lunatics and freaks that the Senate will let by anyway. You’re seriously be in earnest with your remarks, and you’re just being sarcastic . . . right?
Making a demand for an elected lying whore to tell the truth is probably illegal because telling the truth to the people of the US is illegal.
What do you want from a government which pays billions to purchase their official status of being a member of the US Congress? Honesty ?
Unfortunately, lying while under oath in a confirmation hearing is no longer a crime for those in powerful positions. You are also able to commit widespread fraud upon your customers as a bank CEO without legal consequences. That will not change until we reinstate “justice for all”.
Unfortunately, Kamala Harris as reported here then AG of Cal had an opportunity
to take on One West but alas was to busy dreaming of ascent to the Senate and
on to the WH. Another obstructionist Dem
quote” That will not change until we reinstate “justice for all”.” unquote
No, it won’t change until an army of armed citizens drag a few of these scumbag maggots out of their granite palaces and burn them alive upside down from lamp posts. Notwithstanding a few politicians as well.
That is definitely extreme. We did not even do that in the American Revolution. Tar and Feathered, yes. Exiled or imprisoned, yes.
Violence only breeds more violence and what you described is what happened in the French Revolution. Thousands dead, chaos in the streets, and that gave way to Napoleon and decades of war.
“…we all want to change the world, but when you talk about destruction don’t you know that you can count me out.” – The Beatles