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Federal Court: No, the Government May Not Prevent Further Discovery of the Takeover of AIG
biggovernment.com ^ | 02/05/10 | Frank Gaffney

Posted on 02/05/2010 4:13:23 PM PST by American Dream 246

This week we broke the story of possible criminal wrongdoing in the government takeover of insurance giant AIG. In the last several months, the US government has tried, unsuccessfully, to throw out plaintiff Kevin Murray’s case, alleging that the government’s takeover of AIG puts it in the position of supporting and promoting Islam and Shariah finance.

In the discovery process attorneys for Murray, David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise (of the Thomas More Law Center), discovered that the takeover itself may have been illegal, and have attempted to get Treasury Secretary under oath to try and untangle this mess. Again, the Fed and the Treasury Department tried to stonewall.

This past Tuesday, Federal district court judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff rejected the Treasury Department’s and the Fed’s effort to prevent any further discovery while the government attempts to convince the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule Judge Zatkoff’s earlier ruling rejecting the government’s motion to dismiss the federal lawsuit challenging the government’s takeover of AIG on First Amendment-Establishment Clause grounds.

Tim Geithner: The “extraordinary move to depose a sitting Treasury Secretary”

The lawsuit, captioned Murray v. Geithner et al., was brought by attorneys David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise, representing the plaintiff, Kevin Murray, a tax payer and former combat Marine who served in Iraq. The federal lawsuit alleges that the U.S. government’s takeover and financial bailout of AIG was in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Specifically, at the time of the government bailout (September-December 2008), AIG was (and still is) the world leader in promoting Shariah-compliant insurance products. Shariah is Islamic law, and it is the identical legal doctrine that demands capital punishment for apostasy and blasphemy and provides the legal and political mandates for global jihad followed religiously by the world’s Muslim terrorists. By propping up AIG with tax payer funds, the U.S. government is directly and indirectly promoting Islam and, more troubling, Shariah.

After the court rejected the government’s motion to dismiss the case and granted Plaintiff’s attorneys until May 2010 to conduct discovery into the AIG takeover, the government filed a motion asking Judge Zatkoff to certify the case for immediate appeal of his denial of the motion and to stay all further discovery. Today the government got its answer: No and no.

In what is an extremely well-written opinion, Judge Zatkoff scolded the government lawyers for filing the wrong motion at the wrong time and then proceeded to tell them they would have lost in any event because his earlier denial of the motion to dismiss was proper and well-considered.

The Court’s recent decision is especially timely and critical for Plaintiff Kevin Murray because his attorneys had previously filed a motion to compel Secretary Timothy Geithner to sit for a three-hour deposition. The basis for the “extraordinary move to depose a sitting Treasury Secretary” arose because Plaintiff’s counsel had earlier deposed the witnesses provided by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board and the government witnesses either testified inaccurately or feigned ignorance. The only one with all the answers turns out to be Secretary Geithner.

While forcing high government officials to sit for a deposition in civil litigation is extraordinary, federal rules allow a court to take this step when the government official has personal knowledge of a relevant element of the litigation and where the moving party has no reasonable alternative. In this case, attorneys Yerushalmi and Muise argued in their court papers that this exception fits their circumstances in spades.

“The witness designated by the government to testify on behalf of the Fed was less than forthright in his sworn testimony,” Plaintiff’s counsel Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center explained. “To his credit, he admitted he had prepared for his deposition by reading media reports and not actually reviewing the relevant documents. That might suggest that his lack of candor was willful blindness.”

David Yerushalmi, who is co-counsel with Robert Muise, laid out the grounds for the motion:

At the time of the takeover decision, Secretary Geithner was the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and he was the leading advocate of the AIG takeover.

Moreover, he designed how the U.S. government would not only bail out AIG with tax payer dollars, but how the government would illegally take control of 80% of the voting shares through what was patently an illegal and invalid trust arrangement. It is apparent from the discovery we’ve conducted to date that this was done purposefully and with an intent to conceal the illegal takeover with a fraudulent trust.

Attorneys Yerushalmi and Muise want to ask Secretary Geithner:

* Why he forced AIG to take on so much debt that AIG’s credit rating, already in peril, was sure to collapse without yet additional government funds, essentially guaranteeing AIG would remain a ward of the state?

* Why he imposed such Draconian terms on AIG that there was no way it could survive without additional billions from U.S. tax payers?


* Why he then used AIG to secretly funnel 100% payoffs to AIG’s counterparties, including his colleagues and friends at Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and the European giant, Société Générale. In other words, why did Geithner decide to destroy AIG’s chances of survival as a private entity while surreptitiously saving and preserving private ownership of other domestic and foreign financial companies? And,

* Why he took control of 80% of AIG’s voting shares without legal authority to do so and used a fraudulent trust arrangement to conceal the illegal takeover?

BREAKING NEWS:

The court just today granted plaintiff Murray’s motion for leave to amend the complaint to include yet additional TARP funds provided to AIG after the filing of the complaint. While the court did not allow the plaintiff to add AIG as a defendant as he had also requested, Murray’s attorneys tell us that they had accomplished enough discovery to know where to look for the skeletons in AIG’s closet in any event.

More coming soon.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2010; abovethelaw; aig; aigtakeover; americancaliphate; bailout; bho44; bhofascism; bhoislamism; bhotyranny; communist; corruption; coverup; criminalconspiracy; crushislam; crushsharia; cultureofcorruption; czars; democratcorruption; democrats; democratscandals; dnc4sharia; doj4sharia; dojasleep; dojisajoke; dollar; economy; education; enemydomestic; farabovethelaw; fifthcolumn; geithner; government; healthcare; holder; impeach; injusticedepartment; islam; islaminside; islamofascism; kenyanusurper; kevinmurray; liberalprogressivism; military; murray; murrayvgeithner; noaccountability; nobc; nooversight; nosharia; notransparency; obama; obama4sharia; obamascandals; obamunism; palin; politics; sharia; tarp; taxcheat4islam; taxcheat4sharia; taxpayersfleeced; teaparties; thomasmorelawcenter; unnaturalcitizen; ustreasury4sharia
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To: Velveeta

Islam is very quietly taking over, with the big help of Obama - in the government - in the “civil” cases of terrorists - in the corporations - everywhere... That’s what’s going on. So quietly that we hardly notice it. Only when it will be too late.


41 posted on 02/05/2010 8:46:29 PM PST by American Dream 246 (Please, open your eyes. Freedom is not a one day fight. Enemies of Freedom are legion.)
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To: Velveeta

“What IS going on in our country?”

Creeping sharia.

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/creepingsharia/index?tab=articles
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/creepingshariah/index?tab=articles

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/sharia/index?tab=articles
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shariah/index?tab=articles

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/sharialaw/index?tab=articles
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shariahlaw/index?tab=articles

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/lawfare/index?tab=articles
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/libeltourism/index?tab=articles

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shariafinance/index?tab=articles
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shariahfinance/index?tab=articles

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shariacompliant/index?tab=articles
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shariahcompliant/index?tab=articles

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shariabanks/index?tab=articles
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shariahbanks/index?tab=articles


42 posted on 02/05/2010 8:51:55 PM PST by Cindy
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To: Velveeta

Releated Link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2436413/posts

“SEC mulled national security status for AIG details”
Reuters ^ | January 24, 2010
Posted on January 24, 2010 5:05:33 PM PST by Jet Jaguar


43 posted on 02/05/2010 8:56:10 PM PST by Cindy
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To: Cindy

sp=related


44 posted on 02/05/2010 8:56:45 PM PST by Cindy
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To: Thumper1960

I call 0bama a “bastard” quite often and have never heard an objection. If the shoe fits.....


45 posted on 02/05/2010 9:05:39 PM PST by unkus
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To: sickoflibs; stephenjohnbanker; dennisw; FromLori
Thomas More legal team would not take a case that was, as you say, ‘stoooopid.’ They wouldn’t waste time on a case that didn’t have merit. Thomas More, ACLJ, and other Constitution Defending Attorneys ROCK! If you have an extra few dollars, please contribute to them.

This is very interesting. A federal judge ruled that the plaintiff has standing to conduct discovery on the AIG takeover because AIG supports Sharia law (and Sharia law would establish a religion if it had the power).

46 posted on 02/05/2010 9:17:14 PM PST by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas (Pat Caddell: Democrats are drinking kool-aid in a political Jonestown)
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To: unkus

Well.....*I* am not sure where he was “born” and I’m not sure if he’s even certain of his parentage.


47 posted on 02/05/2010 10:04:50 PM PST by Thumper1960 (A modern so-called "Conservative" is a shadow of a wisp of a vertebrate human being.)
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To: Buchal
There is no crime in any of it. Just a sensible public policy is a time of crisis. The attempt to criminalize it is as obscene as prosecuting Marines over Fallujah.
48 posted on 02/06/2010 12:36:02 AM PST by JasonC
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To: Nervous Tick
No, see I'm me, the man in front of you, not your let's pretend sack of straw. And you obviously have no arguments. Run along now, the adults are talking.
49 posted on 02/06/2010 12:36:58 AM PST by JasonC
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To: HighlyOpinionated
Yes, they would, because they have. They are morons and deserve to be laughed out of court.
50 posted on 02/06/2010 12:37:41 AM PST by JasonC
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To: Drill Thrawl
Let's not and say Obama did.

It is simple to make modest adjustments to entitlements and public spending, and to have a functioning and profitable capitalist financial system. If the right wants to lay its claim to power on its dedication to burning capitalism to the ground in order to save it, then it won't get power ever again and won't deserve any.

As a fact, however, the populist know-nothing set will be excluded from all serious decision making on any of it. They are too stupid and reckless to be let near practical responsibilities. If they energy and hysteria help put conservatives in power, fine, well and good. To actually listen to and act on their raving idiocies, however, would be as suicidal as the left has been over health care.

Go to the broad American people and tell them your platform is to shut down all the banks as evil and immoral and unsustainable. Promise them soup kitchens and poverty as far as the eye can see, and tell them it will be virtue. And you won't get to first base.

51 posted on 02/06/2010 12:42:22 AM PST by JasonC
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To: sergeantdave
I fully support the AIG bailout in every respect, and I deny it has cost the treasury or the taxpayer a dime. Why would I compete with morons assailing it for establishing Sharia law? One they are morons. Two Sharia law has precisely nothing to do with any of it, it is simply the desperate smear of hysterics. Three, it was an entirely successful policy that has benefited everyone.
52 posted on 02/06/2010 12:44:36 AM PST by JasonC
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To: Nervous Tick
I do not "heart" Obama, it is a silly statement and yet another reckless smear by the know-nothing idiot crowd. I am a Reagan republican and always have been, and every policy I have supported here came from George W Bush. I am also an optimist on the United States and capitalism and the future of both. I think the doom mongering hysterics terrified of Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank and Al Franken are the most pathetic whining cowards in the history of the right. When men tell me we are all doomed because of a pack of unimportant halfwits like that, I know they haven't got one vertabrae to their name in the entire crowd.

The modern left doesn't scare me. The state of the economy today doesn't scare me. Joe Stalin with atom bombs, slightly worrisome. Pelosi Frank and Franken couldn't scare a newborn hamster. An anybody who thinks we are living in a desperate trying time in which the fact of the republic and humanity hangs in the balance, doesn't have the sense of proportion God gave squirrels.

It is a trivial recession. It is one lost election after two terms marred by policy errors and an unpopular war. Get a freaking grip people, and man the hell up...

53 posted on 02/06/2010 12:50:47 AM PST by JasonC
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To: JasonC

Screw you Jason C... (emphasis added).


54 posted on 02/06/2010 12:52:21 AM PST by antceecee (Bless us Father.. have mercy on us and protect us from evil.)
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To: Liz; STARWISE; maggief; onyx; Bahbah
woo hoo! I can hardly wait....More coming soon.
55 posted on 02/06/2010 1:24:40 AM PST by hoosiermama (ONLY DEAD FISH GO WITH THE FLOW.......I am swimming with Sarahcudah! Sarah has read the tealeaves.)
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To: JasonC; antceecee; Jim Robinson
It is a trivial recession

Yes. DO man the hell up. Put your billions where your mouth is and financially support the 8.4 million people who have lost their jobs until they can get back to work.

Otherwise, screw you, Jason C.

56 posted on 02/06/2010 2:52:30 AM PST by bigheadfred (Be who you are and say what you feel: Those who mind don't matter.Those who matter don't mind.)
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To: JasonC
You might deny that it has cost a dime of taxpayer money, but you'd be wrong. The initial $85 billion of taxpayer money went where? AIG doesn't have it. They paid £14.1 million LAST YEAR for their contract sponsoring Manchester United! They had to hold their hands out for $37.8 billion in a second bailout. Tell me again where the $85 billion went and how that didn't cost us? Deny all you want, but the facts are on the other side of the fence.
57 posted on 02/06/2010 3:38:40 AM PST by Renderofveils (My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. - Nabokov)
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To: Renderofveils

Wondering if the Marxists are planning to confiscate the trillions of dollars held as Life Insurance Reserves. If, in fact, they are still *real money*.

Does the FED Reserve report includ all the Employer Benefit GROUP LIFE INSURANCE? If those benefit programs are replaced or taken over by the Federal Government - what happens to the Life Insurance premiums/reserves?

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/accessible/l117.htm


58 posted on 02/06/2010 3:47:28 AM PST by sodpoodle (Despair - Man's surrender. Laughter - God's redemption.)
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To: JasonC
"Yes, they would, because they have. They are morons and deserve to be laughed out of court."

If the US governent for instance bailed out Hospitals operated by the Catholic Church, at huge benefit in religious and political power and wealth to the catholic church, would that not violate constitutional law ?

oh yeah, I almost forgot, the constitution has a different meaning to liberal thinkers

59 posted on 02/06/2010 4:01:15 AM PST by KTM rider ( ..........tell me this really isn't happening ! !)
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

“This is very interesting. A federal judge ruled that the plaintiff has standing to conduct discovery on the AIG takeover because AIG supports Sharia law (and Sharia law would establish a religion if it had the power). “

Man, that is bizare.


60 posted on 02/06/2010 4:36:18 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops, and vote out the RINO's!)
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