Grassley's Hunt For An Obama Insider Trading Scandal Backfires: Nabs GOP Staffer instead
Source: TALKING POINTS MEMO
Early last year, Wall Street traders somehow found out that the Obama administration planned to make a policy change to Medicare before the news was even announced.
The flurry of stock trades in major health care companies that followed has since caught the eye of federal law enforcement as well as Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has made investigating the matter one of his pet projects on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees. In his search, Grassley has gone as far as to cast suspicion on the Obama administration as the source of the leak.
But in a twist, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that federal regulators and law enforcement officials have now focused their attention on a Republican health policy staffer in the House. A lawsuit filed on Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, first reported by the Journal, said investigators believe the staffer "may have been" the source of the leak. It also sought to force the staffer to turn over records to investigators, something he and the committee have reportedly refused to do despite being handed subpoenas.
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/grassley-medicare-leak-sutter
The SEC has filed a lawsuit after Brian Sutter, the top Republican health staffer on the House Ways and Means Committee, refused to comply with its subpoenas. House lawyers, according to the SEC, had argued that the Constitution protected them from having to comply with the subpoenas.
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Lionel Mandrake
(4,073 posts)What I feel about this story is schadenfreude, i.e.,
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
SDjack
(1,448 posts)caballojm
(270 posts)The Republicans have such a cornucopia of morons from which to choose. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable stating which one is actually the dumbest.
rurallib
(62,342 posts)I am sure Chuck could win a "best in Class."
And he is MY senator! I am so proud.
justgamma
(3,660 posts)Still waiting for Rove to answer his,
freshwest
(53,661 posts)At least that's my reasoning. They have to be removed by their equals, usually.
The staffer may on the hook in this case because of personal benefit.
Rove isn't an elected official and it appears that subpoenas are not enforced:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Rove#Congressional_subpoenas
I don't know if they can arrest anyone to make them talk...
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)is a former Grassley staffer.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Why is a Republican run 'committee' protecting a 'leaker' who may have committed serious federal crimes?
jmowreader
(50,447 posts)Cha
(295,899 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)and reread it.
It figures.
Psephos
(8,032 posts)onenote
(42,373 posts)Not to defend Grassley, but after questioning one administration official about a week after the leak, he turned his attention to his former staffer.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/grassley-eyes-former-aides-role-in-market-intelligence-90197.html
Enrique
(27,461 posts)Grassley's insider trading probe, which has been going on for years, hasn't been entirely partisan, and this isn't the only Republican who has been a focus of it.
Why shouldn't we be supporting the rare occasions when Congress does its job, regardless of which party the insider traders turn out to be from?
And by the way, Patrick Leahy has been working with Grassley on this.
lark
(22,993 posts)Of course, since the staffer is a Repug - nothing for him to see, nothing at all will ever be done by them. He makes me so sick!!
C Moon
(12,188 posts)they look in all the dark corners where they commit crimes, but instead of finding something on the President, they either end up looking like fools, or incriminating their own. It's just so precious.
PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)parents used to go to a church he goes to.
until they fired the band leader for attempting suicide (didn't go thru with it) Jesus helped and then the devil fired him. figures
if something like this happens usually it's on the right.