Progressive Group Launches Ads Urging Senators To Oppose Trump's Treasury Secretary

WASHINGTON A progressive advocacy group focused on holding Wall Street accountable has launched the first major ad campaign since the presidential election, targeting President-elect Donald Trump ’s nomination of Steven Mnuchin for Treasury secretary.

The ads, released Wednesday by Allied Progress, urge Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) to oppose the nomination of the multimillionaire hedge funder and former Goldman Sachs executive.

The ads highlight Mnuchin’s record as co-owner of OneWest, a bank that profited during the height of the 2008 financial crisis by engaging in an array of unethical practices . Regulators say the bank gave predatory loans to the elderly and aggressively foreclosed on people’s homes. One of those people included a 90-year-old woman who was evicted over 27 cents . The bank was also accused of racist lending practices like redlining  against minority groups. 

“Mnuchin made millions after his bank foreclosed on homeowners,” the narrator says in the ads. (Liberal billionaire donor George Soros, along with fellow hedge fund manager John Paulson, who is now a Trump supporter, were part of the investment team that purchased the failing bank.)

The 30-second spots, which are backed by a six-figure cable and broadcast buy, begin airing this week in Arizona and Nevada two states hit particularly hard by foreclosures during the recession.

Democrats received more ammo in the fight against Mnuchin’s nomination earlier this week, after The Intercept reported OneWest had engaged in other shady practices. The bank was accused of “widespread misconduct” and there is evidence that it allegedly violated “notice and waiting period statutes, illegally backdated key documents, and effectively gamed foreclosure auctions,” according to a leaked 2013 memo from the California attorney general’s office.

Mnuchin is one of several wealthy Goldman Sachs alums Trump has named to his Cabinet despite his populist anti-Wall Street rhetoric during the campaign. Last month, the president-elect named Gary Cohn , the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, to head the National Economic Council. And on Wednesday, Trump nominated Wall Street attorney Jay Clayton to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This article has been updated with comment from Tara Bradshaw.