Judicial Watch is suing the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as a result of its failure to produce documents sought for months by the non-profit activist group regarding the 2008 bailout of American Insurance Group (AIG) with $85 billion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
The suit follows the board’s May 15 acknowledgement that it had received Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the documents. Under the FOIA, the board then had 10 days to produce the requested documents or explain why they were not available. Instead, the board has failed to tell Judicial Watch anything at all.
| ‘Under the FOIA, the board then had 10 days to produce the requested documents or explain why they were not available. Instead, the board has failed to tell Judicial Watch anything at all.’ |
So, the non-profit, which specializes in using the FOIA to insure government transparency and accountability, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking “copies of any and all records of the Board located at the [Federal Reserve Bank of New York] concerning, regarding, or relating to the proposition that ‘the disorderly failure of AIG was likely to have a systemic effect on financial markets that were already experiencing a significant level of fragility.’ Such records include, but are not limited to…detailed meeting minutes, meeting notes, supporting memoranda, communications, and electronic messages and attachments.”
Go here to read the suit documents.
“We are now trillions of taxpayer dollars into these financial bailouts and the government refuses to answer basic questions about the government’s radically intrusive response to the financial crisis,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The American people are tired of the Obama administration’s stonewalling and they want answers. The Fed should obey Freedom of Information Act law and respond immediately.”
The ultimate total of tax dollars invested in AIG in the bailout is not known, but CNN has estimated that it could be as high as $182 billion.
