Mnuchin’s Hollywood Ties Raise Ethical Questions in China Talks

WASHINGTON — “Wonder Woman,” the 2017 film that Steven Mnuchin helped produce before becoming Treasury secretary, hauled in about $90 million at the box office in China. It was the film’s most successful international market and a roaring success for an American superhero export. But because of China’s strict laws for foreign films, the studio behind the movie, Warner Bros., received just a small fraction of those revenues.

Now, as Treasury secretary and one of the lead negotiators in trade talks with China, Mr. Mnuchin has been personally pushing Beijing to give the American film industry greater access to its markets — a change that could be highly lucrative to his former industry. While Mr. Mnuchin divested from his Hollywood film production company after joining the Trump administration, he maintains ties to the industry through his wife, the actress and filmmaker Louise Linton.

In 2017, Mr. Mnuchin sold his interest in the company, StormChaser Partners, to Ms. Linton, who at the time was his fiancée. In his 2018 disclosure, which was obtained from the Treasury Department through a records request by The New York Times, StormChaser is listed as one of Ms. Linton’s assets.

View the complete March 14 article by Alan Rappeport and Ana Swanson on The New York Times website here.

Lobbyist couple had to change the locks on Pruitt

The following article by Eliana Johnson was posted on the Politico website April 6, 2018:

People familiar with the EPA administrator’s condo rental say the arrangement, which has drawn intense scrutiny, was supposed to be a temporary fix, but he overstayed his welcome.

Scott Pruitt was only supposed to be living in the Capitol Hill condominium that has become a focal point of his latest ethics controversy for six weeks last year while he got settled in Washington – but the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator didn’t leave when his lease ended.

Instead, he asked the lobbyist couple who became his disgruntled landlords to revise his lease several times, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. Continue reading “Lobbyist couple had to change the locks on Pruitt”

Four Commerce Department appointees lose their posts after problems in background checks

The following article by Carol D. Leonnig, Damian Paletta and Josh Dawsey was posted on the Washington Post website February 27, 2018:

Among the four appointees who lost their posts Tuesday was a one-time senior adviser to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Four Commerce Department political appointees working on interim security clearances lost their jobs Tuesday because of problems in their background checks, the latest fallout from the intensifying public scrutiny on administration officials working without permanent clearances.

The department determined that the four appointees — including one who worked for the agency for nearly a year and served for several months as a senior adviser to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — should not be given access to classified information, according to multiple officials who requested anonymity to discuss personnel matters. Continue reading “Four Commerce Department appointees lose their posts after problems in background checks”