Posted on 06/19/2009 6:07:42 PM PDT by Libloather
GOP Lawmaker Rips Treasury for "Gagging" SIGTARP, Sees Parallels with Nixon Era & Calls for Investigation
June 18, 2009 9:29 PM
ABC News' Matt Jaffe reports: The lone sitting Republican member of Congress on the Congressional Oversight Panel tonight dubbed the Treasury Department's challenge of the independence of bailout watchdog Neil Barofsky "outrageous, "unprecedented", and "disturbing", and he called on the Panel to launch an immediate investigation.
"It's highly outrageous and highly irregular and we are going to get to the bottom of it," warned Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, in an interview with ABC News.
"For Treasury to assert some kind of attorney-client privilege to try to gag the Special Inspector General - it raises some very disturbing questions," he said.
Department spokesman Andrew Williams has denied that they ever used attorney-client privilege to withhold documents from Barofsky.
**SNIP**
"I don't undertstand an administration that talks about transparency and accountability, but then one IG gets fired and the other gets gagged. It's unprecedented. You have to go back to the Nixon era to find a parallel."
"It's breathtaking that they're attempting to take this action," he stated. "As I understand the legal statute, they don't have a leg to stand on."
"I don't think Congress would've created the position without independence - otherwise it's just a dog and pony show. It begs the question what do they have to hide?"
"It strikes me as an outrageous action for what has become an outrageous program," Hensarling said. "This is an incredibly serious issue. This is a program that's turned into a $700 billion revolving bailout fund that has little to do with financial stabilization."
"I am going to call on the Congressional Oversight Panel to launch an immediate investigation."
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.abcnews.com ...
Please add SIGTARP to your personal dictionary.
This needs to be pushed.Glenn Beck has mentioned it repeatedly but we need to push everyone else to pick up the cry,another example of the so called “transparency” of this fascist regime.
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