Steve Mnuchin may be the latest Trump official to violate ethics agreement

• Once again, a member of President Donald Trump’s administration is in hot water over potentially unethical conduct.
  
• Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sent a letter to the director of the Office of Government Ethics alleging that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin may have violated an ethics agreement that prohibits him from promoting his own business interests.
  
• Wyden said the alleged violation came during an interview with Mike Allen, a co-founder of the start-up news website Axios, when Mnuchin plugged The Lego Batman Movie. The movie is being produced by Mnuchin’s company, Ratpac-Dune Entertainment.
  
• “I’m not allowed to promote anything that I’m involved in,” Mnuchin said during a live interview with Allen on Friday, according to the letter. “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 all send your kids to Lego Batman.” Read more (3/27/17 4:21 PM)

Senate Republicans ignore Democratic boycott and change rules to push Trump nominees

• When Senate Democrats refused to show up to vote on two Trump’s cabinet nominees Wednesday, Republicans didn’t let that stop them: They just changed the rules.
  
• The Senate Finance Committee, faced with the second day of a Democratic boycott, took the rare step of suspending the rules to advance the nominations for the proposed Department of Treasury secretary and Department of Health and Human Services secretary, Steve Mnuchin and Tom Price.
  
• With no Democrats in the room for the second day in a row, the GOP members voted 14-0 to allow the nominations to proceed to the full Senate floor.
  
• The rules typically require at least one Democrat to be present for a vote to take place. Read more
  

Trump picks Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton to head the SEC

• Clayton is a famous Wall Street lawyer and dealmaker, with a great deal of experience raising capital.
  
• Like many proposed cabinet officials, Clayton has strong ties to Goldman Sachs. 
  
• He is widely expected to scale back regulations. Read more
  

Memo alleges Trump Treasury nominee Steve Mnuchin’s old bank illegally evicted homeowners

• A newly leaked memo suggests a bank formerly run by Steve Mnuchin — Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary — may have broken California foreclosure laws under his stewardship.
  
• The 2013 prosecutorial memo alleges that the bank, OneWest, “rushed delinquent homeowners out of their homes by violating notice and waiting period statutes, illegally backdated key documents, and effectively gamed foreclosure auctions” between 2009 and 2015. Read more

Trump breaks promise to reveal secret info on Russia hacks by Wednesday

• Trump said Friday he knows “things that other people don’t know” about the Russian hacks and that it would be released Tuesday or Wednesday.
  
• Well, it’s Thursday, and the promised revelation? Huge shocker: It never materialized. Read more
  

Just a reminder of who Trump is surrounding himself with. Read more