Dems Call for Taxpayer-Funded Ethics Investigation Into ‘Lego Batman’ Comments

A Democratic senator has asked the Office of Government Ethics to investigate comments made by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in an interview this week, in which he appeared to jokingly “plug” one of his previous company’s films, The Lego Batman Movie.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to OGE Ethics Director Walter Schaub this week asking for a probe into the comments made by Mnuchin — a Hollywood film financier before taking a job in the Trump administration — in a live interview with news outlet Axios on Friday.

In the letter, Wyden asked the ethics watchdog to investigate whether Mnuchin may have promoted the product of a business he still holds interest in — namely, the production company RatPac-Dune Entertainment — when he urged attendees at the Axios event to send their kids to see the Lego Batman Movie, which was produced by RatPac Dune.

“I am concerned that Sec. Mnuchin’s comments, may be seen to have a predictable effect on the financial interests” of RatPac-Dune, Wyden wrote in the letter.

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