A DC lawyer type who has reviewed the Oversight Committee’s FCIC report sends along these notes:
Barry,
I’m sure you’ve seen this by now, but the Oversight Committee’s minority report on the FCIC is explosive.
Based on this report, I would think that a broader investigation is certainly warranted. There were certainly major ethics violations here, and potentially some criminal ones as well.
You can see the full report here.
Read the section about how Peter Wallison leaked confidential documents to Edward Pinto, and about Bill Thomas’s correspondence with his former staffer (now a lobbyist). The Edward Pinto leak was actually referred to the FCIC’s General Counsel, who said that it was a violation of their ethics code.
Moreover, the actual charter for the FCIC was to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. If Wallison was actually using his position to try to advance the repeal of DFA, rather than simply objectively analyze the causes, I would assume he would be violating that Congressional mandate, and I would think that would at least merit a broader investigation. There are certainly ethics problems here, and maybe even criminal ones as well.
Finally, and this could be the big shocker (and perhaps why McHenry CANCELLED the “criticize the FCIC” hearing he had scheduled for today), the email traffic between Wallison and other commissioners, and Wallison’s relationship with the GOP staff, seems to suggest that Wallison may have been working with certain members of the House GOP to try to repeal DFA. That would seem to implicate certain Congressmen as well. Again, not sure if this rises to the level of criminality, but my off the cuff reaction is that an investigation is warranted here. The FCIC, which was authorized and funded by Congress, was supposed to provide an independent, bipartisan analysis of the causes of the crisis, NOT serve as a platform for a partisan, ideologically motivated attempt to repeal past legislation.
You can see the full report here.
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