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For Barack Obama, it wasn’t enough to take over an auto manufacture and declare, with a straight face, that he had no interest in running a car company, while firing its CEO, restructuring its debt, replacing its board, and going over its production plans in exacting detail. Nor was it enough to merely illegally defraud legitimate creditors in this shady scheme. No, the President had to add insult to injury by lying about the nature of the creditors victimized by his treachery. Calling them names and slandaring them while ripping them off, Obama has revealed himself as a shamless demogogue,...

Cliff Asness, whose firm manages some $20 billion of assets, has written an open letter blasting President Obama for his attack on the hedge fund industry in the wake of the Chrysler bankruptcy. As you'll recall, hedge funds, which hold approximately $1 billion in Chrysler bonds, refused the government's offer to take approximately thirty cents on the dollar. Obama accused hedge funds of holding out "for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout." These comments have enraged many in the industry but few have spoken out publicly. Asness, whose firm doesn't hold Chrysler bonds, says the industry is genuinely afraid...

It looks like Lauria [Fmr. Attny. for Perrella Weinberg in the Chrysler debacle]is feeling the heat from the WH apparatchiks.

Barack Obama's decision to paint the hedge funds in the Chrysler case as anti-American obstructionists is prompting death threats against them. That's at least what their lead laywer Thomas Lauria is saying, reports The Detroit News. He said in court that the threats have been turned over to the FBI. We assume Lauria is being honest -- you don't say this stuff in court and turn it over to the FBI if it's rubbish -- though we'll note that Lauria is being pretty provocative in his attempt to win the war of public opinion in the Chrysler case. He's of...

Are you following the disembowelment of Chrysler’s secured creditors with an eye not just toward what it means for the moribund car company but for what it could do to the very concept of secured debt? Has it dawned on you what the consequences will be if the President gets his way and consideration is given to creditors not according to contracts, rules, and established legal precedents but according to which group is most politically favored? And do you believe the President advanced the cause of economic recovery by publicly excoriating “speculators” who once hoped to profit by lending money...

Who knew that a bunch of hedge funds could become the champion of the little guy? As Chrysler bondholders faced down the Obama administration last week, insisting on due process, they emerged as my personal pick for civil rights champion of the week. Not everyone, of course, will see it this way. And, especially, not those courting Big Labor. On Saturday The New York Times ran a story with this headline: “Union Takes Rare Front Seat in Chrysler Deal.” The piece, which ran over onto page three and in all occupied thirty inches of print — in other words a...

There have been some serious allegations made so it's time to lay everything out. Last Friday, a bankruptcy attorney named Tom Lauria charged that the Obama administration was trying to strong arm his clients into accepting a restructuring deal for Chrysler. This followed up another report in which the White House was openly trying to demonize the hedge funds that were holding out on the Chrysler restructuring deal it had orchestrated

As of last night’s deadline, we were part of a group of approximately 20 relatively small organizations; we represent many of the country’s teachers unions, major pension and retirement plans and school endowments who have invested through us in senior secured loans to Chrysler.

Obama’s first 100 days have occasioned a number of dispiriting moments, but yesterday’s attack on Chrysler’s bondholders represented a new low. In a speech announcing the company’s bankruptcy filing, President Obama blasted “a group of investment firms and hedge funds [that] decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout.” That is nothing short of a lie. The consortium wasn’t holding out for a bailout. It was holding out for a bankruptcy. The administration tried desperately to keep Chrysler out of bankruptcy court; in the process, it demonstrated exactly why that institution is so valuable. Obama’s auto...

Audio from todays interview on WJR in Detroit, Attorney for Chrylser lenders who object to the sale, in his own words, had one of his Clients threatened by the Obama Whitehouse, and that his reputation would be destroyed, e-mail this to anyone who can get the story out...

Yesterday (May 1) on Detroit’s Frank Beckman’s morning talk show (WJR), bankruptcy attorney Tom Lauria made the incendiary accusation that the members of the White House had threatened to use the “the full force of the White House Press Corps to destroy” his client’s reputation if it didn’t acquiesce to highly unfavorable terms of the government’s proposed Chrysler restructuring plan. Because of the strongarm tactics, Lauria’s client dropped its opposition. Here is the tape of Beckman’s interview of

THE STORY OF THE THREAT BY THUG CAR CZAR STEVE RATTNER MIDI - EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE

WH issues their "not I, said the little red hen" denial "The charge is completely untrue," said White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, "and there's obviously no evidence to suggest that this happened in any way." Mata Musing: yeah... like they're so stupid as to leave a trail of evidence of threats? But then, Pellera Weinberg, magically, is no longer in opposition and a part of the lawsuit. my my ~~~ A quiet story making it's rounds only thru cyberspace it that of Bankruptcy Attorney, Tom Lauria of White & Case. Mr. Lauria represents the Chrysler holdouts - a...

..Listen to this chilling interview by Detroit's WJR radio Fred Beckmann as Lauria explains how the Obama Administration is attempting to run roughshod over what used to be sacrosanct rule of law...

Chilling Audio From WJR via Mark Levin Show Chicago style politics, makes it to the Whitehouse... Tom Lauria "One of my clients was directly threatened by the Whitehouse" "Full force of the Whitehouse Press Corp would destroy his reputation" From newsbusters If the Bush White House had engaged in anything similar to what's being described here, there would be calls for impeachment. Maybe there should be similar talk now. As it is, the establishment media will more than likely work very hard to ignore this. It should not be ignored. What attorney Tom Lauria describes is nothing short of chilling....

Whitehouse responds to the on air interview of Tom Lauria on Detroits WJR where he stated that the Whitehouse Directly threatened one of his clients and that the White House Press Corp would destroy his reputation. Now the White House denies.. Can anyone ever trust a word that comes out of this White House?

A leading bankruptcy attorney representing hedge funds and money managers told ABC News Saturday that Steve Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's Auto Industry Task Force, threatened one of the firms, an investment bank, that if it continued to oppose the administration's Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the White House would use the White House press corps to destroy its reputation. The White House said the story was false. "The charge is completely untrue," said White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, "and there's obviously no evidence to suggest that this happened in any way." Thomas Lauria, Global Practice Head of...