Treasury nominee defends past actions
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick as Treasury secretary, clashed with Democrats during a lengthy confirmation hearing Thursday over his handling of thousands of mortgage foreclosures and his failure to initially disclose to the committee nearly $100 million in assets and interests in a Cayman Islands corporation.
Elsewhere on Thursday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, tapped by Mr. Trump to head the Energy Department, was sidestepping Democrats who sought to pin him down and elicit clear, specific responses to questions about the gravity of climate change. He also vowed to be an advocate for an agency he once pledged to eliminate and promised to rely on federal scientists.
Meanwhile, as the hearings on these potential Trump Cabinet members were underway, the president-elect said Thursday that he expects that former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, his choice to lead the Agriculture Department, will “deliver big results for all Americans who earn their living off the land.” The Perdue announcement ended hopes that the last open spot would go to a Latino nominee.
As for Mr. Mnuchin, he said said the failure to disclose the assets was an oversight that he had corrected when it was brought to his attention by staffers of the Senate Finance Committee. He said he had followed the advice of a lawyer who believed the disclosures were not necessary.
But Democrats seized on the issue as evidence of serious ethics challenges among Mr. Trump’s Cabinet nominees.
“Never before has the Senate considered such an ethically challenged slate of nominees for key Cabinet positions,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
In the hearing, Democrats on the Senate panel challenged Mr. Mnuchin’s explanations, suggesting it was because he did not want to reveal his involvement in a business that could be used as an offshore tax haven. Mr. Mnuchin said he had never used the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes.
After the hearing, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, predicted to reporters that Mr. Mnuchin will get confirmed and indicated he hoped to have a committee vote next week. But one Democrat, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, announced that he planned to vote against Mr. Mnuchin.
Mr. Mnuchin, one of wealthy business executives Mr. Trump picked for his Cabinet, told the Senate panel that he had turned over 5,000 pages of documents to the committee and that some of the questions were complicated.
According to a memo written by the Democratic staff on the committee, Mr. Mnuchin did not initially disclose $95 million in real estate — a co-op in New York City, a residence in Southampton, N.Y., a residence in Los Angeles and $15 million of real estate in Mexico. In addition, Mr. Mnuchin initially failed to disclose $906,556 of art work held by his children, the memo said.
The memo said that following meetings with committee staff, Mr. Mnuchin amended his disclosure forms and also disclosed his position as director of Dune Capital International in the Cayman Islands, the site of many offshore tax havens.
When pressed by Democrats to explain the omissions, Mr. Mnuchin said, “I did not use a Cayman Island entity in any way to avoid taxes for myself. There was no benefit to me.”
Elsewhere, Mr. Perry told a Senate committee Thursday that he regrets his infamous statement about abolishing the department and insisted it performs critical functions, particularly in protecting and modernizing the nation’s nuclear stockpile.
“… after being briefed on so many of the vital functions of the Department of Energy, I regret recommending its elimination,” Mr. Perry said.
At his hearing, Mr. Perry also pledged to promote and develop American energy in all forms, advance the department’s science and technology mission and carefully dispose of nuclear waste. And he acknowledged that climate change is real.
Mr. Perry, who served 14 years at Texas governor, also said he was for “all of the above” on energy production — oil and gas to renewable sources like wind and solar power — before President Barack Obama embraced the strategy.
Meanwhile, Mr. Perdue, in a statement released by Mr. Trump’s transition team, pledged to “champion the concerns of American agriculture and work tirelessly to solve the issues facing our farm families.”
His nod means no Hispanic will serve in a president’s Cabinet for the first time in nearly three decades.