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Geithner refuses to release Bush administration TARP documents to Judicial Watch
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
11/18/09 6:47 PM EST
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is the reason Obama administration is still refusing to release Bush-era documents about the massive government bailout, says Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. “Their guy [Geithner] was involved in this last year, and now he’s running Treasury.”
The group filed two Freedom of Information lawsuits against the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve, both of which have ignored dozens of months-old FOIA requests.
“We are now more than a year and trillions of dollars into the government bailout and answers are in short supply. What was Congress told about the so-called financial crisis and who was lobbying the Fed for taxpayer cash? The taxpayers are paying for this bailout and they deserve to know the truth,” Fitton said.
Judicial Watch is specifically requesting records pertaining to a Sept. 18, 2008 congressional briefing on the financial crisis attended by then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senators Charles Schumer, D-NY, Chris Dodd, D-CT, and Richard Shelby, R-AL.
“That’s when they came in and said the sky is falling and laid out the worst-case scenario if TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) was not passed,” Fitton told The Examiner. “I suppose there was a lot of misinformation and threats issued at this meeting that scared the wits out of Congress.”
Judicial Watch is also seeking access to all the Fed’s visitor logs from August 2007 to the present. For more information on the Judicial Watch suits and FOIAs, go here.
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