Joe Barton is Right: There Was a $20 Billion Shakedown in the White House

Barton should have been apologizing to the American people, not BP, but other than that he is 100% correct. What happened in the White House yesterday was a “shakedown” of Godfather-like proportions. Lets review:

1) BP agreed to pay $20 billion over four years to an “independent” party;
2) BP immediately identified $20 billion in U.S. assets that could be liquidated should BP not be able to pay on time;
3) BP received no assurances that the ultimate economic damages would not be higher;
4) BP is still liable for all individual and state claims in court;
5) The fund is completely separate from any environmental damages, which the Obama administration says could top $30 billion;
6) BP paid another $100 million for workers made unemployed by President Obama’s indefinite ban on offshore oil drilling;
7) BP received no assurance that the White House would not ask for more money if the ban becomes permanent.

All of this was “negotiated” while Attorney General Eric Holder, who has already threatened BP with criminal prosecution, stood in the corner. And what did BP get in return? A single statement from the President saying he did not want to drive BP into bankruptcy. Of course he doesn’t. The mob can’t collect from a bankrupt business. Clinton administration Deputy Attorney General turned BP lawyer Jamie Gorelick let slip what the game is really all about: “We know what it looks like when a company is driven into bankruptcy. The claims that come first are the creditors, then the employees, then the environmental claims, and then the likes of shrimpers. This would not be a good result for anyone.” Well, not anyone who expects the law to be followed.

Back in the mid-1990s, the Clinton Administration came into power. With end of the Cold War, it was pretty obvious that low-level intensity conflicts and Terrorism would be the dominant security threat to the United States. As the United States battled terrorism, the liberals who came into power wanted to cripple the capabilities of the CIA, because as everyone knows, the CIA is biggest force for evil in the world (sarcasm there).

Anyway, there was a Deputy Attorney General who wrote a memo that set a higher standard than the law even set in keeping FBI criminal investigations for terrorism and counter-terrorism information separated. This memo erected an even higher wall, and made it even more difficult for intelligence information about terrorists to be used and disseminated in protecting the Citizens of the United States.

Also during this time frame, the Clinton Administration, led by the Janice Reno Justice Department, began to investigate lenders who were not meeting the “aims” of the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) This investigation, and threat of investigation, led to Fannie Mae beginning the dangerous lending practices that eventually led government officials to bankrupt this country over STUPID loans made by these lending institutions. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federally chartered mortgage lending institutions, basically defrauded and lied their way into insolvency starting in the late 1990s.

After the 9/11 attacks, the President established the 9/11 Commission to investigate how this was allowed to happen. Of course, Washington DC being Washington DC, the Democrats had to make sure it was a “bi-partisan” commission. So it shouldn’t be any great shock that when the commission was grilling Attorney General John Ashcroft about how difficult it was for intelligence information to flow freely from agency to agency, there was a Democrat on the Commission grilling him about the Bush Administration’s failure to get intelligence information passed from agency to agency. It came as a shock to the public when Ashcroft declassified a document revealing that the person grilling Ashcroft was none other than the former Deputy Attorney General who wrote the infamous ”wall memo”, Jamie Gorelick.

So, when it was said and done, the Clinton Administration had the ultimate insider placed on the 9/11 Commission to insure that the blame would not be deflected back on it. That, my friends, is a political fix.

Move forward to 2008.

After the debt crisis and with our economy tanking, carrying much of the world economy with it, investigations began as to why this happened. One of the revelations was that Fannie Mae had misreported earnings, and executives had earned millions in bonuses by participating in excessive and risky lending practices, practices which were at the heart of the housing bubble collapse.

In all of this, the Washington Post reported “Fannie Mae employees falsified signatures on accounting transactions that helped the company meet earnings targets for 1998, a “manipulation” that triggered multimillion-dollar bonuses for top executives, a federal regulator said yesterday….. Fannie Mae reported paying the following executive bonuses in 1998: chairman and chief executive James A. Johnson received $1.932 million; Franklin D. Raines, chairman-designate, received $1.11 million; Chief Operating Officer Lawrence M. Small received $1.108 million; Vice Chairman Jamie S. Gorelick received $779,625; Chief Financial Officer J. Timothy Howard received $493,750; and Robert J. Levin, an executive vice president, received $493,750.

Did any of those names jump out at you? If it didn’t, it should. You see, one of those executives who was receiving excessive bonuses was none other than Jamie Gorelick. Yes, this is the same Jamie Gorelick who was part of the Reno Justice Department that threatened criminal investigations for not making more loans to people who couldn’t pay them back. Gorelick was working at Fannie Mae after leaving the Justice Department in the mid-90s. She was replaced by Eric holder.

So, now, we have Jamie Gorelick deeply involved and partially responsible for two of the huge crisis that have shook this nation and, in the case of the credit industry, is still threatening to plunge us into a depression.

Now, fast forward to yesterday.

President Obama summoned the BP Chairman to the Whitehouse. Eric Holder, the Attorney General, was present. That was highly sensitive because he has already announced that a criminal investigation of BP is underway. I’m wondering why BP would even sit down with the President when they are being investigated.

Anyway, they had a sit-down where the President basically conducted a shakedown of BP. BP agreed to put $20,000,000,000 into an escrow fund to administered by someone the President appoints. It is being reported this morning that Joe Biden leaned over the table and told BP “Listen, either you put 20 million in escrow or we’ll do it for you.” Since this is not a government office, the normal rules of government accountability don’t apply. This has the potential for all kind of bad things to happen.

But imagine my surprise and amazement when I found out who was sitting on BP’s side of the table during this meeting at the Whitehouse. None other than Jamie Gorelick.

3 issues that have shaken this country to its core, and Jamie Gorelick is in the middle of all three of them.

Boys, that is some set of coincidences.

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