Timothy Geithner

NY Fed: Geithner Wasn't Involved In AIG Disclosures Issues

Zachary Roth | January 8, 2010, 5:02PM

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner

The New York Fed says Tim Geithner wasn't involved in the New York Fed's late 2008 effort to press AIG to avoid disclosing information about its bailout funds.

A Fed lawyer said in a statement:

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Northwest Flight 253

Abdulmutallab Organized 'War On Terror Week' At UK University -- See The Poster

Justin Elliott | January 8, 2010, 12:18PM

Flight 253 suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

It's been reported in England and the U.S. in recent days that two years before Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to blow up Flight 253, the college Islamic Society of which he was president organized a "War on Terror Week."

But the poster from that University College London event, which has a corner notation "Approved by Umar Farook," has not been in circulation. Check it out below.

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Barney Frank

Frank Supports Hearings On Fed-AIG Emails

Zachary Roth | January 8, 2010, 12:08PM

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner

Momentum is building for hearings on what Tim Geithner knew and when he knew it about the New York Fed's effort to press AIG to keep secret details of its massive federal bailout.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who chairs the House Financial Services committee, told BusinessWeek: "To the extent that there were problems in that AIG situation, we have taken steps to prevent their occurrence."

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Sue Myrick

GOP Rep Launches Terror News YouTube Series, Warns Of Muslim Brotherhood Plot

Justin Elliott | January 8, 2010, 10:47AM

Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC)

Fed up with the mainstream media filter, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) is taking her quest to inform Americans about the threat of jihad to the Internet -- namely, YouTube -- in a new weekly terror news video series that will be featured on her congressional Web site.

The first two episodes -- "Beyond Terrorism -The Whole Story" and "Fort Hood - What You're Not Hearing" -- are presented in a news magazine format, with Myrick speaking in front of a grey screen, flanked by an American flag and a plant. In the Fort Hood episode, Myrick "interviews" authors like Walid Phares of the conservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies (while she asks them direct questions, Myrick does not seem to actually be in the room with her interlocutors).

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Joe Arpaio

Grand Jury Convened In Arpaio Probe, Say Officials

Zachary Roth | January 8, 2010, 9:06AM

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

U.S. prosecutors have convened a grand jury as part of their investigation into abuses by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, two county officials say -- a sign that the probe may be kicking into a higher gear.

Maricopa County Manager David Smith and Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson said last night they had been subpoenaed to testify next week before the panel. Both have clashed with Arpaio.

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New York Times

Oops: Times Corrects Itself -- Again -- On Faulty Gitmo-Terror Headline

Justin Elliott | January 7, 2010, 6:46PM

Guantanamo Article From 1/7/10 New York Times

Here we go again.

You may remember the series of posts we did last spring on a splashy New York Times front-pager that was originally headlined "1 In 7 Detainees Rejoined Jihad, Pentagon Finds."

TPMmuckraker pointed out that, among other flaws in the story and the Defense Department study on which it was based, the piece simply accepted the Pentagon's assumption that all Guantanamo detainees were jihadists when they entered the prison. Under that theory, all detainees who were allegedly engaging in terrorism had therefore "rejoined" the fight. In fact, there's evidence that that assumption is false.

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Northwest Flight 253

State Dept. Didn't Think Abdulmutallab Had Visa -- Because Of A Misspelling

Justin Elliott | January 7, 2010, 5:31PM

Flight 253 suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

The Flight 253 review just released by the White House reveals that a "misspelling" of Umar Abdulmutallab's name led the State Department to believe he did not have the U.S. visa that he did in fact have -- but the implications of this revelation are not immediately clear.

Here's the nugget from the second-to-last page of the six-page report:

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Northwest Flight 253

Flight 253 Review Details Embassy Meeting With Abdulmutallab's Father

Justin Elliott | January 7, 2010, 5:09PM

The US embassy in Abuja, Nigeria.

The White House just released the unclassified summary of the security review of Flight 253, and we've given it a read for new facts about what was known about Umar Abdulmutallab.

What's new here? Not much, seemingly. But here's one nugget that popped out providing some clarity on the nature of the visit by Abdulmutallab's father to a US embassy in Nigeria:

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AIG

Emails: Fed Pressed AIG To Keep Bailout Details Under Wraps

Zachary Roth | January 7, 2010, 2:58PM

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner

The New York Fed pressured AIG in late 2008 to withhold from the public details about its massive and controversial payments to counter-parties, according to emails obtained by Bloomberg News. At the time, Timothy Geithner, now the Treasury Secretary, was New York Fed chair.

The federal government was heavily criticized last year for what some lawmakers have called a "backdoor bailout" of several large banks. It spent $182 billion all told to bail out AIG, but directed that the troubled insurance giant use those funds to pay back its counter-parties -- including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, DeutscheBank, and other major banks -- with whom it had engaged in credit default swaps.

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Northwest Flight 253

Flight 253 Intel: What Did They Know And When Did They Know It?

Justin Elliott | January 7, 2010, 2:19PM

Later today President Obama is scheduled to talk about the latest details from the security review of the failed Flight 253 attack.

National Security Adviser James Jones is predicting that Americans will feel "a certain shock" by the results of the review.

But in the meantime, as Josh noted on the Editors Blog, we thought it would be worthwhile to compile what has been publicly reported about what U.S. government agencies knew about Abdulmutallab, including the supposed "warning signs" that were missed.

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U.S. Attorneys

Figures In U.S. Attorney Firings Now Running For Office

Zachary Roth | January 7, 2010, 2:02PM

Tim Griffin

Who ever said there are no second acts in American life never met some of the Republicans who played roles in the U.S. attorney firings.

Three figures from the Bush Justice Department scandal of 2006 are back in the limelight, running for office under the GOP banner in 2010.

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Republicans For Choice

Report: Pro-Choice GOP PAC Spends Little To Elect Pro-Choice GOPers

Zachary Roth | January 7, 2010, 11:11AM

Ann Stone of Republicans for Choice

The number of pro-choice Republicans in Congress today is tiny and getting tinier.

There are a few reasons for that, but here's one you likely weren't aware of: According to a detailed new investigative report, the best-known organization working to get pro-choice GOPers elected to Congress actually spends very little of its budget doing so.

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Yes Men

D'Oh: Embarrassed Canada Zaps Thousands Of Web Sites In Response To Yes Men Hoax

Justin Elliott | January 7, 2010, 9:01AM

Yes Men Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum

The Canadian government managed to temporarily wipe out 4,500 personal and small business Web sites last month as it frantically grappled with a climate change hoax by the Yes Men, enlisting the national cybersecurity agencies of Canada and Germany in the process, a Danish web hosting company and the Yes Men tell TPMmuckraker.

Yes Man Mike Bonanno, one of the marquee personalities of the lefty activist group, tells TPMmuckraker that the experience, in which a German Internet service provider shut down the Yes Men's parody Web sites in response to a Canadian demand, is "really unfortunate for free speech on the Internet. The kind of scary thing about this is that these hosting companies seem so eager to act in the interest of whoever has the most power."

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Doug Domenech

Bush Interior Official To Run Virginia Natural Resources Department

Zachary Roth | January 6, 2010, 6:12PM

Doug Domenech

Virginia governor-elect Bob McDonnell has named to his cabinet a Bush administration official who, according to one former colleague, took direction from Team Abramoff.

McDonnell, a Republican, announced today that Doug Domenech will be his secretary of natural resources.

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Securities and Exchange Commission

SEC Sued Over Failure To Disclose Post-Madoff Reforms

Nick Pinto | January 6, 2010, 3:52PM

The Securities and Exchange Commission is being sued over its failure to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests for information about what reforms, if any, it has undertaken since it failed to detect Bernard Madoff's multibillion fraud.

The government watchdog Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington announced the lawsuit today, saying that the SEC has yet to reply to CREW's October 2009 information request.

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American Future Fund

Shadowy Conservative Group Still Working To Undermine Robocall Laws

Zachary Roth | January 6, 2010, 2:37PM

Despite setbacks, a shadowy conservative group isn't backing off its bid to undermine state restrictions on political robocalls, as it gears up to unleash a barrage of such calls in 2010 races.

In October, as we reported, the American Future Fund Political Action (AFFPA) argued in a brief to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that state laws restricting robocalls are pre-empted by a more lenient federal law. AFFPA informed the FEC that it planned to make such calls in Congressional races this fall.

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James von Brunn

Lawyer: Alleged Holocaust Shooter Dies In Prison

Justin Elliott | January 6, 2010, 2:23PM

James Von Brunn

James Von Brunn, the elderly neo-Nazi who was charged with killing a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Museum last June, has died in prison, according to his lawyer. The news was first reported by the AP.

As you may remember, the elderly von Brunn was shot after he opened fire at the entrance to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, killing security guard Stephen Johns. Von Brunn was brought to the hospital in critical condition after reportedly being wounded in the face.

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Wall Street

New Dems Met With Wall St. Execs While Pushing to Weaken Financial Reform

Zachary Roth | January 6, 2010, 12:45PM

Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY)

A group of moderate Democrats held private meetings this fall with executives from Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, while in the midst of pushing successfully to water down landmark legislation designed to beef up regulation of the financial industry.

In mid October, members of the New Democrat Coalition (NDC), a caucus of pro-business Democrats, traveled to New York City. According to an emailed itinerary for the trip drawn up by an event planner working for the group and obtained by TPMmuckraker, members met on October 12 with executives from Goldman, and the following day with execs from JP Morgan. Sandwiched between those events was a fundraiser for the New Dems, and a meeting with CEOs from Marsh and McLellan Companies, a consulting and insurance firm.

[SEE THE ITINERARY EMAIL HERE. SEE AN INVITATION FOR THE FUNDRAISER HERE]

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Scott Rothstein

Rothstein To Plead Guilty To Ponzi Scheme

Justin Elliott | January 6, 2010, 10:57AM

Scott Rothstein

High-flying Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein will plead guilty to charges arising from his alleged $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme in late January, the AP is reporting.

Rothstein, who had in early December plead not guilty, hasn't exactly been lying low since his alleged scheme fell apart last November. A local newspaper got footage of Rothstein enjoying a lunchtime martini at the Capital Grille in Fort Lauderdale in mid-November.

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John Murtha

Murtha-Tied Military Contractor Barred From Federal Contracts -- Again

Justin Elliott | January 6, 2010, 10:56AM

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)

Kuchera Defense Systems, a Pennsylvania contractor closely tied to Rep. John Murtha and his military earmark machine, has again been barred from getting government contracts, Politico reports.

The Navy put Kuchera on a banned list in December in response to allegations that the company paid kickbacks to win part of an earmark awarded by Murtha to another company. Those allegations arose in a fraud trial for two ex Air Force officers that resulted in convictions last year.

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Guantanamo

The Gitmo-Yemen-Flight 253 Connection: What We Know And How We Know It

Justin Elliott | January 6, 2010, 10:12AM

With the news Tuesday that the Obama Administration has decided to halt transfers of Gitmo detainees to Yemen, it's worth taking a closer look at what we do -- and do not -- know about the activity of former detainees in the group known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

That's the al Qaeda "affiliate" that claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas attack over Detroit, and that President Obama has fingered as training and equipping Umar Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man arrested in that incident.

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voter fraud

Conservative Recall Effort Leads To Voter Fraud Charges

Zachary Roth | January 5, 2010, 5:47PM

Not all voter fraud can be pinned on ACORN.

Two Michigan men were recently charged with voter fraud. The men, Michael Bastianelli and Harvey Robinson, allegedly faked signatures that were used to get a recall petition on the ballot.

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Allen Stanford

A Washington Tale: As Feds Closed In, Stanford Boosted Efforts To Buy Influence

Zachary Roth | January 5, 2010, 2:00PM

Allen Stanford

As the federal government closed in on Allen Stanford in 2008, he began desperately pulling out all the stops in a bid to stay one step ahead. The Texas banker launched his own in-house lobbying shop, run by a former top aide to a powerful congressman. And he hired a former Clinton administration PR specialist to aggressively deflect reporters looking into his financial empire.

The Stanford story, of course, is primarily about how a high-living tycoon used a Caribbean tax shelter to allegedly orchestrate a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. But it's also an object lesson in how Washington works: How wealthy and powerful people can buy a level of influence and access that allows them to play by a different set of rules. In Stanford's case, that only worked for so long. But it's not hard to see how he could have thought playing the Beltway influence game might be his salvation.

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Raymond Martin

Alleged Crooked Sheriff On Pot-Dealing Competitor: I'll 'Put The Fear Of God In Him'

Justin Elliott | January 5, 2010, 1:42PM

Raymond Martin

Sheriff Raymond Martin once pulled his service revolver from its holster and pointed it at his drug-dealing partner, warning the man there was no "getting out" of their relationship, a criminal complaint against Martin alleges.

We told you earlier about how Martin, the sheriff in rural Gallatin County in southern Illinois, was arrested last May on drug and gun charges for allegedly dealing marijuana that had been confiscated by police.

Martin and his wife and son were charged Monday with murder-for-hire, reportedly for targeting witnesses who are going to testify against Martin. While the details of the alleged murder plot have not been released, we've now dug into the original drug complaint against the sheriff.

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Anthrax

2001 Redux? Anthrax Scares Follow Terror Plot

Zachary Roth | January 5, 2010, 10:06AM

Yesterday -- ten days after the failed Christmas bombing attempt -- there were anthrax scares in both Alabama and California.

Envelopes containing white powder were sent to the district offices of senators and congressmen, as well as to a federal courthouse, in five different Alabama cities, and were believed to come from the same source. None of the letters tested positive for anthrax or any other harmful substance.

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Corruption

Small Town Illinois Sheriff Charged With Pot Dealing And Murder-For-Hire

Justin Elliott | January 5, 2010, 9:48AM

Raymond and Krista Martin (Cody Martin, Inset)

Raymond Martin had been sheriff in tiny Gallatin County, Illinois, for 20 years. So when he was arrested on federal drug and gun charges last May for allegedly running a large-scale marijuana dealing operation out of his police SUV, residents were shocked.

But that was only the beginning.

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Comeback

Richard Pombo: An Ethics Retrospective

Justin Elliott | January 4, 2010, 6:31PM

Former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA)

Tomorrow, former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) is set to burst back onto the national political scene with a new bid for Congress in California.

Luckily, TPM's archives are bursting with stories of Pombo's ethical troubles -- the very troubles that helped sink his 2006 reelection bid after seven terms in office.

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Hassan Nemazee

Accused Ponzi Schemer Gave Tens Of Thousands To Clinton Foundation

Justin Elliott | January 4, 2010, 5:18PM

Hassan Nemazee and Bill Clinton

Yet another organization with ties to prominent Democrats has received money from accused Ponzi scamster Hassan Nemazee. This time, it was the William J. Clinton Foundation that received a hefty donation from Nemazee, the New York financier and Democratic Party fundraiser.

Nemazee, who was charged with stealing $292 million from several banks, gave between $50,000 and $100,000 to the former president's charity in 2009, according to a donor list released yesterday.

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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Bond On Detroit Case: Obama Didn't Learn From Bush's Mistakes

Justin Elliott | January 4, 2010, 12:47PM

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)

In a statement to TPMmuckraker, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) elaborates on his position that the Bush Administration made a mistake in not classifying shoebomber Richard Reid as an "enemy combatant" -- and that President Obama is now repeating that mistake in handling Umar Abdulmutallab.

But Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, does not explain why he did not speak out against Bush's handling of Reid at the time.

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Carlos Loumiet

Stanford's Lawyer Played Key Role In Shielding Banker From Scrutiny

Zachary Roth | January 4, 2010, 12:01PM

Allen Stanford

We told you earlier today about Yolanda Suarez, the Florida lawyer who forged ties with members of Congress and ran interference with journalists on behalf of Allen Stanford. But it's also worth paying attention to another Florida lawyer and key Stanford ally, who appears to have played an equally crucial role in allowing the Texas banker -- who was charged in June with orchestrating a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme -- to stay a step ahead of the government for so long.

As Stanford's lawyer of choice, Carlos Loumiet helped set up the unusual regulatory arrangement that allowed the Stanford Financial Group (SFG) to move hundreds of millions of dollars from Florida to Antigua with little scrutiny. Soon afterwards, he served on a Stanford-funded task-force to rewrite Antigua's banking laws -- an effort that U.S. regulators have said left major loopholes and hindered efforts to crack down on fraud. And the court-appointed receiver seeking to unravel Stanford's far-flung financial empire has demanded that the two law firms that have employed Loumiet -- who hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing -- hand over records of their work on behalf of Stanford.

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Gun-Toters

New Mexican Tea Partiers Bring Guns To Anti-Obama Rally

Justin Elliott | January 4, 2010, 10:21AM

A gun-bearing protester in Alamogordo, New Mexico Saturday.

A group of tea partiers and Second Amendment activists in New Mexico decided to kick off the new decade with a show of arms at a demonstration protesting President Obama's "socialist" policies, according to local media reports via Think Progress.

Over three hundred people attended the protest in Alamogordo in southern New Mexico, which was organized by the Otero Tea Party Patriots and a group called the Second Amendment Task Force.

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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Bond Spokesperson: Bush Erred In Trying Shoe Bomber As Civilian

Justin Elliott | January 4, 2010, 9:18AM

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) on Sunday became the latest Republican to criticize the Obama Administration for handling the would-be Christmas day bomber as a civilian, and Bond's communications director added on Twitter that trying shoebomber Richard Reid in federal court was a "mistake."

The comments by Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Fox News Sunday echo calls by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, for Umar Abdulmutallab to be tried in a military tribunal.

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TSA

TSA Withdraws Subpoenas Against Bloggers

Zachary Roth | January 4, 2010, 9:13AM

Security at the Denver airport.

The Transportation Security Administration seems to have had second thoughts about those subpoenas it issued to two bloggers in an attempt to find out who leaked the agency's new security directive, issued in the wake of the failed Christmas Day bombing attack.

On Friday evening, a TSA spokeswoman sent out the following statement:

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Yolanda Suarez

Top Stanford Aide Schmoozed Lawmakers, Sweet-Talked Journos

Zachary Roth | January 4, 2010, 8:33AM

Yolanda Suarez and Allen Stanford

In the late nineties, Douglas Farah, at the time a reporter for the Washington Post, was looking into a then-obscure Antigua-based businessman who had played a key role in helping the island nation rewrite its banking laws, frustrating U.S. efforts to crack down on money laundering.

Farah's reporting suggested that Allen Stanford wielded surprising influence in the Antiguan government. And Farah was hearing that the Texas-born billionaire and his company, the Stanford Financial Group (SFG), had ties to Latin American drug money.

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