GOP seeks SEC records on Goldman
Rep. Darrell Issa of California, top Republican on the House oversight committee, plans to send a letter Tuesday demanding a slew of documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission, asserting that Friday’s fraud filing against Goldman Sachs raises “serious questions about the Commission’s independence and impartiality.”
Issa’s letter, addressed to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and signed by eight other House Republicans, demands to know if the commission had any contact about the case, prior to its public release, with White House aides, Democratic Party committee officials, or members of Congress or their aides.
Interesting to see what is in the body of the letter....
--The Commission approved the Goldman suit in a vote that spit along party lines – a rare occurrence for approvals of enforcement litigation.
--Before the Commission had released its announcement, the New York Times published on its website a story describing the suit.
--Less than half an hour after the Times story’s publication, Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America and now a project of the Democratic National Committee (“DNC”), sent millions of supporters an e-mail message from President Obama urging support for “Wall Street Reform.”
--Within hours, the Democratic National Committee had purchased AdWords advertising from Google, Inc. The DNC’s Google campaign fundraising advertisement, headed “Fight Wall Street Greed,” appeared whenever a user ran a Google search for the phrase “Goldman Sachs SEC.” It read, “Help Pres. Obama Reform Wall Street and Create Jobs. Families First!” and included a link to
http://www.BarackObama.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, the website of Organizing for America.
--Democrats in Congress and the Administration have heralded the Commission’s suit against Goldman as a welcome boost to their case for the legislation.
--Members of the media have already begun to question the timing of the Commission’s suit and the actions of the Democratic National Committee.
Something smells very fishy....
