Courtesy of Pam Martens
Senator Sherrod Brown
Yesterday, at 11:41 a.m., as Cornell Law Professor Saule Omarova sat before the Senate Banking Committee for her confirmation hearing to head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the regulator of national banks, Republican Senator Tom Cotton Tweeted the following:
“Saule Omarova stole $214 (~$400 adjusted for inflation) from T.J. Maxx in 1995. She’s woefully unqualified to supervise the banking system.”
Cotton’s Tweet links to a Fox News report which indicates that it has obtained the police report that shows that Omarova was 28 years old at the time of the arrest in 1995. The items she was reported to have taken without paying for them were “four pairs of shoes, two bottles of cologne, two belts and socks.” According to the report, she had left the store with the items when confronted by a security guard who had observed her stuffing them into her large purse inside the store.
If Omarova had been a teenager stealing candy from a convenience store, this would not be a disqualifying incident to become a banking regulator. But Omarova was 28 years old at the time. She has been nominated by the President of the United States to head an agency that oversees banks holding $14 trillion in assets. Having a nominee with zero arrest records for stealing as an adult would likely be a vetting requirement in the minds of most Americans.
According to the Fox News report, a spokesperson for the Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, responded to Fox News that Omarova has “been the subject of a relentless smear campaign.”
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