The Triumphant Return Of Tricky Dick: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Is Still Lying And We Prove It

Tim Geithner lies to Ali Velshi and the nation about his knowledge of the AIG bonus payments on CNN yesterday.

To the cynics who clamor that journalists are missing the bigger picture regarding AIG, I respond that it is they who have been blinded.  The rub is no longer the $165 million in bonuses or even the $173 billion in taxpayer largesse.  At issue are the potentially criminal lies being told by Tim Geithner as part of a shameless White House attempt at hiding its role in approving and even lobbying for over $1 billion in AIG bonuses to be paid this year.

It is a cover-up.  It stinks.  And we will not allow them off the hook.  And it smells an awful lot Richard Nixon in 1974.  In fact it tastes like a presidential cocktail of Tricky Dick, with some Ronnie I-Don't-Recall Reagan, a huge shot of Slick Willy and even spiced with a couple of George Bushies.

And the mind-boggling conundrum of it all is that Geithner, Summers and Obama are attempting to dissemble in the face of overwhelming and easily-sourced evidence from just 6 weeks ago.

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake is the undisputed leader of this investigation, and she had this to say yesterday:

If I were inclined to believe Timothy Geithner didn't know about the AIG bonuses until last Tuesday—as the administration claims—that went out the window when I went to the AIG hearing on the Hill today and listened to Paul Kanjorski declare that he had known about them at least four to six weeks ago. As he said on CNBC today:

I'm sick and tired of hearing the administration and the Secretary of the Treasury say "we just found out about it." That's not true. And if he did just find out about it on Thursday or Wednesday then he better get to his mail department and to his telephone people because we communicated with the Treasury at least six or seven times.

Liddy also said that the Fed, and specifically Ben Bernanke, knew that the bonuses were going to be paid and approved them.

A list of who has admitted knowing about these bonuses and when.

Senator Harry Reid has known since November.

Paul Kanjorski has known for at least 6 weeks.

Elijah Cummings has known for months.

Ben Bernanke has known for months.

Tim Geithner has known for months and the New York Times reports today that he discussed these same bonuses in front of Congress on March 3rd, but now says he didn't know the full-scope until March 10th. What the hell are you trying to pull Geithner? Do you perhaps believe that not a single American has a functioning brain.

Tim Geithner was the architect for the first 2 AIG bailouts.

Tim Geithner and Larry Summers lobbied non-stop to have the Dodd ammendment changed to allow these exact bonuses to be paid.

Tim Geithner claims in the above CNN interview that the lobbying was to prevent future legal challenges to the Dodd ammendment.

Tim Geithner never mentioned future legal challenges when he was lobbying Dodd for the change.

Tim Geithner instead argued on Feb. 10 that Dodd's ammendment was overly intrusive and meddlesome.

Tim Geithner argued on Feb. 14 that Doddd's ammendment would force small banks to return the funds and not take future assistance.

Yesterday, Tim Geithner claimed at least 4 times in the CNN interview that his objections were related to future legal challenges.

Opinions are worth the web servers that host them, but the evidence is incontrovertible so here's mine.  Since Geithner was the co-architect of AIG bailouts #1 and #2, I believe he has been aware of these bonus retention payouts since late September.  Further, I GUARANTEE he has known about them since November 14, when the Washington Post discussed them on page D1, the front page of their business section. 

Political animals (and Geithner most certainly is one) have people on staff whose sole duty is to monitor the press for their king.  To me, the very surprising error was TG's failure to anticipate the extremely negative public reaction that would accompany news of these payouts.  Blind and dumb and beholden to the financial industry and Wall Street as Krugman states today.

One more thing.  You know how Timmaaay and Larry Summers won't shut up with their talking point that TG fought hard against Liddy last week when he first learned.  Guess how much Timmaaaay got Liddy to cut from the original amount: less than $5 million.  Nice pushback, TG, nice. 

Now that is something about which to brag.

Think about it.  And don't be fooled.

Tim Geithner is a liar and should be investigated for perjury before Congress.

**********************************

Below are the stories from Jane detailing the AIG bonus fiasco. Her investigative journalism has been outstanding. Each of her articles deserves your attention.

AIG Still Set to Pay $1 Billion in AIG Bonuses Later This Year

Treasury Attempts to Blame Dodd for Bonuses to AIG

Live From Capital Hill: The AIG Hearing

AIG & Me: A Wacky Day on the Hill

Elijah Cumming Has Known for Months. So Has Gethner

Does Anyone Care About the $1 Billion in Bonuses to AIG to be Paid Later This Year ?

Cummings Asks Questions That Geithner Will Not Discuss

Geithner Never Mentions Legal Concerns Until This Month

Two Americas Two Bailouts

Of Bonuses, Lies and Videotape

More Photos:

Comments

[DailyBail]

WASHINGTON — The question was direct and prescient. Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, asked the Treasury secretary in an open hearing what could be done to stop American International Group from paying $165 million in bonuses to hundreds of employees in the very unit that had nearly destroyed the company.

Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, responded by saying that executive pay in the financial industry had gotten “out of whack” in recent years, and pledged to crack down on exorbitant pay at companies like A.I.G. that were being bailed out with billons of taxpayer dollars.

The exchange took place before the House Ways and Means Committee on March 3 — one week before Mr. Geithner claims he first learned that the failed insurance company was about to pay a round of bonuses that have since caused a political uproar.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/business/20bonus.html?_r=1&ref=business

[DailyBail]

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc., the insurer saved from collapse by government money after losses on credit-default swaps, offered about $450 million in retention pay to employees of the unit that sold the derivatives, according to two people familiar with the situation.

About 400 workers at the financial products unit may get the money in two installments, said the people, who declined to be named because details of the payments were confidential. The business was responsible for about $34 billion in writedowns since 2007 as the market value of swaps AIG sold to banks plunged amid the subprime mortgage market collapse.

The payments bring to more than $1 billion the amount AIG has committed to keep its employees from leaving. The New York- based insurer in September took a federal bailout to avoid bankruptcy and is selling subsidiaries to repay the government. AIG said the program was disclosed before the government rescue, which is now valued at $150 billion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=avGnUgGMu1q4

[DailyBail]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some top recipients of U.S. bailout money owe the federal government more than $220 million in unpaid taxes, a U.S. lawmaker said on Thursday.

Representative John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia who heads the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, said 13 bailed-out companies owe the federal government taxes. Two of them owe more than $100 million each.


http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52I4LO20090319

[DailyBail]

This is complete bullshit by Summers. He's lying too, but he's not testified under oath, so he's safe.

Summers is a scoundrel in most pure form.


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With outrage mounting over AIG's $165 million in bonuses to executives, the president's chief economic adviser offered a new line of defense for the White House in an exclusive interview with CNN. Larry Summers said an AIG meltdown was too risky for the economy to push too hard on executive bonuses.

Larry Summers suggested that if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had pushed the insurance giant too hard on the bonuses, AIG could have collapsed just like Lehman Brothers and sparked an even bigger crisis.

"Secretary Geithner has used all the legal authorities that are open to him to contain and limit the payment of bonuses," said Summers, chairman of the National Economic Council. "What he did not do, and what would have been irresponsible to do, as outrageous as these payments are, would have been to put at risk the stability of the financial system.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/17/AIG.larry.summers/index.html

[DailyBail]

Hmm. ya think?

There will be blood in the streets next time.


Analysts: Next bailout will be a tougher sell

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/17/obama.aig/index.html

[DailyBail]

What did Geithner know and when did he know it?

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/03/19/what-did-geithner-know-and-when-did-he-know-it/

[DailyBail]

AIG Bonus Knowledge Timeline

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-aig-bonus-timeline-who-knew-what-and-when-did-they-know-it-2009-3

[DailyBail]

AIG Lawsuits? Geithner’s “Concern” Not Mentioned till This Month
By: Jane Hamsher Friday March 20, 2009 7:19 am

Tim Geithner needs to get his story straight. Yesterday he told CNN's Ali Velshi that in fact he did ask Chris Dodd to insert language in the stimulus bill that allowed the AIG bonuses to be paid:

http://firedoglake.com/2009/03/20/aig-lawsuits-geithners-concern-not-mentioned-till-this-month/#more-38206

[DailyBail]

In a stunning development, Sen. Christopher Dodd said that Obama administration officials asked him to add language to last month's federal stimulus bill to make sure the controversial AIG bonuses remained in place


http://www.cnbc.com/id/29763023

[DailyBail]

Tim Geithner Might Not Survive The Weekend. Of Bonuses, Lies And Videotape

http://dailybail.com/home/bailout-aig-breaking-news-tim-geithner-might-not-survive-the.html

The complete piece from yesterday with all the links, video and photos

[DailyBail]

Bailout AIG Bonus Congressional Videos: It's Not Easy Being Ed Liddy (Links, Videos and Photos For 3-19-09)

http://dailybail.com/home/bailout-aig-bonus-congressional-videos-its-not-easy-being-ed.html

[DailyBail]

The AIG Bonus Scandal In Cartoons

http://dailybail.com/home/aig-bailout-humor-the-aig-bonus-scandal-in-cartoons.html

[Vernon Clayson]

Comparing the current president with Richard Nixon is an unforgivable insult to Richard Nixon. Nixon had a problem of his own making but had the grace to resign rather than disgrace the office through impeachment proceedings; the current, acting, president, Obama, disgraces the office in ways unimaginable to all preceding office holders and to most of the citizens of our once proud nation. Even a simple bumpkin like Jimmy Carter and a reckless individual like Bill Clinton followed long established protocols in government, in contrast Obama thinks and acts as a dictator, sadly with the complicity of the Congress and the courts.

[Howard T. Lewis III]

The 2.5 million citizens gathered at the fence of the White House, each one emotionally prepared to single-handedly go over the fence and lynch Richard Nixon from a tree on the White House lawn is the reason Sly Richard resigned. Some of my friends from Seattle travelled across the U.S. to be there for the Official Swearing Out ceremony. Nixon had no grace. He invoked his mother's memory for the 'pity benefit' for his final words as president. He called her 'a saint'. Imagine what Nixon would call a saint.

Geithner and Brittney Spears seem to have the same publicist. Geithner alludes to being aware of the angler fish about to suck him in but he is 'Willy with the dynamite'. He has to see what happens when justice is served. Most of us avoid unpleasantries. but business is business. And sprats will always go for the litte worm on the top of the anglerfish's head.

[Vernon Clayson]

Mr. Lewis III, in what pipe dream did you see or hear that two and one-half million people came to Washington to go over the fence to lynch Richard Nixon? That many people on the streets around the White House is near impossible so it's doubtful that only a few bystanders could have seen Nixon walk to the helicopter with the security in place. I think your 2.5 million is akin to the so-called million man marches in Washington that were blown out of proportion. Nixon speaking in praise of his mother wasn't out of order, neither was Obama writing that his mother "was a little too white and a little too sure of herself", both were expressing feelings, would you deny them the freedom to speak those feelings?

[Howard T. Lewis III]

There was a huge number of people, way over a million and a half, who went to D.C. to make sure Nixon left. And to publically bring up your mother when you are lucky to escape with your bigotted murderous hide is an insult to the good mothers of the world. Nixon should have left with grace by turning state's evidence against his in-house supervisors. Name Bush ring a bell? How about Prescott and the nazi imports hanging around? The group that set up the Fukushima plant on the beach in 1968, facing open ocean, with the emergency cooling vulnerable to the next major tsunami to cause an inevitable meltdown with the guaranteed radiation release messing up Japan and the west coast of the U.S. in 5 days? With all the spent fuel to be stored in brittle cement ponds over the reactors? Designed by GE and some by Westinghouse, licensed and sited by the AEC. The AEC under Nixon also assisted in the placement of nukes under the WTCs I,II and 7 to disintegrate the foundations to allow space for the upper structures to collapse into. (See Dr. Ed Ward, MD for particulars on US/USSR commercial applications of nuclear technologies.) I personally, as well as hundreds if not thousands of others knew of the preset charges, including the nukes. Many of the others have since passed on. Many of the younger managment can answer some questions.

GHW was ambassador to the U.N. at the time and hobnobbed with the eugenics crowd just like Prescott. Prescott was the director of German war bond sales in the U.S. until he was caught at it in 1942. He hired Nixon to run for office in California. Their s&b group has been loyal to England for at least 300 years. That's Prescott, two seats away from Hitler in Hitler's box when Jesse Owens showed them how it's done at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
If you want to admire or hold Nixon in awe, please do it downwind. We've been trying to bury him for over 17 years but fanatics keep digging him up and shaking him at us. It's never justified.

[Harry Johnson]

Verne, my boy, nixon was slime but then again he was a republiCON, like ronnie reagan, the first salesboy president, the first bush, the CIA president and the little slimy bushjunior, an overentitled frat boy handed everything and screwing it all up not to mention president cheney, the Prince of Darkness and Lord of the Flies. nixon was forced to resign and the rest should have been as well. Ike and the first Roosevelt are the only decent republicons since at least Grant and Grant was a decent person but a poor president. Every other republicon has been corrupt as sin, stupid or both as in the case of the mini bush and reagan. Any criticism of President Obama has to be tempered by the absolute disgusting republicon alternative. His biggest sin has been to try to reason with them and get along.

[S. Gompers]

Awesome Howard and Harry. Some would prefer it is all make believe....

[Howard T. Lewis III]

The major reason for the seemingly incompetent extraordinarily malleable B. Obama to be the focus of the executive branch may have a sinister motive. Geithner, Paulson, Bernanke, Lewis, that Jamie twit, and others, deal in a realm which is soon understood and describable given a few true answers (Thank YOU Daily Bail). Obama could see the thefts and misdirected channeling of stolen hard assets thinnly veiled by principles of 'deregulation'. Computerized 'high-velocity trading' for one, is a method of stripping the market. B.O. was gladly (?) accepted into Harvard and Columbia and his records remain CIA-sealed. Bush the satanist 43's self grading at Yale was released. Bush actually gave himself the same grade in all classes during all self-graded school terms, with a 7% range, top to bottom. Sealed records ALWAYS are the result of a judge's decision, until Obama. There is no 'national security' reason to have his records CIA-sealed. Unless the nation to be secured is the one currently garroting the United States.
I have repeatedly mentioned that I believe B.O. has been worked on. The scars all over the back of his head would have taken two or three angry men with shovels. They are not inner ear surgery scars. Lobotomies, which cause a pathological passive condition in the subject, are done through the nares, or eye socket. The procedure frequently causes memory loss. B.O. has forgotten every promise of consequence since the election. And he publically submits and bows, regularly.

The fact that the CIA sealed his health, school, financial, property, and birth certificate records should sound a 'condition red' alarm in any political scientist or historian. Intrigues and lethal treachery has been the tradition in English royalty for centuries. Rome and central America, as well as the old Hawai'ian Kingdom also feature this self indulgence. Geithner, et al, serve as pirates to loot the coin of the realm from the U.S. stock market and place it in British protectorate off-shore accounts. Queen lizard and Chaalllz maintain they have "no authority" over these banks and cannot become involved in audits. The CIA was formed to be, and continues to be, loyal to England. FDR was dying and Truman ran a hat shop before becomming president as the OSS was renamed the CIA. The rats came out to play after nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki unecessarily. The cabal that licensed and sited Fukushima was these same rats. They knew exactly what would happen when the next major tsunami hit and what the radiation would do. Linus Pauling got the Nobel Prize and the U.S. government verified the cancer-radiation factors with nuke exposure. But it gets worse.

Please refer to a search on 'Dimona dozen v. Fukushima 50' and review dutchsinse.com after seeing The History Channel's 'Weather Wars? That's Impossible' for clarification of the process and lethal aspects of the status of ongoing economic warfare against the U.S.,today. NWO=OWO+CFR(The Fed)+IMF

[Vernon Clayson]

Harry Johnson, not your real name, with your response you prove why our political leaders treat is as simpletons, they know we can't possibly understand their machinations, there are just too many intricacies involved, so people, too many of them, pick out the latest Obama pronouncement to be the whole truth of the matter. Don't be fooled, his speeches are given to him to read through once before he goes to the lectern and prattles it to us. He seems unaware that overexposure makes each word less in value.

[Sagebrush]

Republican or Democrat, you don't get a top job in the administration or any real power in Congress unless you have been bought and paid for. Shut off the money the special interests are shoveling to these sold out agents of the elite, get rid of all the perks they have set themselves up with, close the revolving door from business to government, government to business and reform the damn electoral process. Till this happens no matter what party Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Tea that controls the government, that government works for the elite minority. They see the majority of the American People as an inconvenience to be misled, manipulated, and bled dry when the corruption and greed of the elite overwhelms the economy.

[S. Gompers]

Amen Sagebrush.