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Congressman wants Geithner to testify in BofA-Merrill probe
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07/17/09 08:06 AM ET
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner might face the same congressional grilling his predecessor and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have received in recent weeks if one Republican lawmaker gets his way.
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) called on Geithner to testify in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's ongoing investigation into the deal between Wall Street heavyweights Bank of America and Merrill Lynch late last year.
The committee has probed whether or not then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Bernanke acted to pressure Bank of America last December against backing out of its bid to acquire Merrill, and whether or not they concealed information from shareholders that might have scuttled a deal.
McHenry said that Geithner, then head of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, should testify about his role.
"The key person who's missing from this is Timothy Geithner, then head of the new York Fed," McHenry said during an appearance on the Fox Business Network on Friday. "We need to hear from Tim Geithner about what he did, his actions."
In particular, McHenry said he's interested in learning whether or not Geithner directed his office of legal counsel to pressure Bank of American into delaying information about Merrill's dire balance sheet situation.
"The interest I have as a policy maker is to ensure two government bureaucrats didn't threaten private sector business with retaliatory actions for not following through on a private sector deal," McHenry said, before adding that for some other lawmakers, the investigations are motivated by "buyer's remorse" about Congress's authorization of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout last fall.
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) called on Geithner to testify in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's ongoing investigation into the deal between Wall Street heavyweights Bank of America and Merrill Lynch late last year.
The committee has probed whether or not then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Bernanke acted to pressure Bank of America last December against backing out of its bid to acquire Merrill, and whether or not they concealed information from shareholders that might have scuttled a deal.
McHenry said that Geithner, then head of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, should testify about his role.
"The key person who's missing from this is Timothy Geithner, then head of the new York Fed," McHenry said during an appearance on the Fox Business Network on Friday. "We need to hear from Tim Geithner about what he did, his actions."
In particular, McHenry said he's interested in learning whether or not Geithner directed his office of legal counsel to pressure Bank of American into delaying information about Merrill's dire balance sheet situation.
"The interest I have as a policy maker is to ensure two government bureaucrats didn't threaten private sector business with retaliatory actions for not following through on a private sector deal," McHenry said, before adding that for some other lawmakers, the investigations are motivated by "buyer's remorse" about Congress's authorization of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout last fall.
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