In the News
By Hugh Son
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae may have shortchanged taxpayers when the U.S.-owned firms settled loan disputes with Bank of America Corp. for $2.8 billion rather than demanding more funds, Representative Maxine Waters said.
"This settlement may have been both premature and a giveaway," the California Democrat said today in an e-mailed statement. The deal, announced yesterday by the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender, may "amount to a backdoor bailout that props up the bank at the expense of taxpayers."
by Zach Carter and Ryan Grim
Despite mounting evidence of big banks committing serious fraud in the foreclosure process, the U.S. Senate eliminated $35 million in legal aid to homeowners trying to keep their homes.
by John Eggerton
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has suggested something of a distrust-but-verify approach to enforcing the memoranda of understanding Comcast has signed with Asian American, Hispanic and more recently African American groups in an effort to win approval of its deal with NBCU.
by Susan Crabtree
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is capitalizing on ethics committee blunders to put the entire ethics process on trial and cast serious doubt about the case against her.
Waters's tactic stands in stark contrast to the way Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) handled the case against him. Waters has been on offense since an investigative subcommittee charged her with three ethics violations in July.
by David Fiderer
There's one thing missing from the ethics charges issued against Maxine Waters: Facts. Neither the Office of Congressional Ethics nor the House Committee on Standard of Official Conduct has ever alleged facts that show that show Waters or anyone on her staff ever violated any rules or statutes. The fatal flaws are obvious to anyone who knows something about the law, or knows how to read.
by Ryan J. Reilly
Two lawyers from the House ethics committee, including the chief prosecutor working on the case against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), were suspended last month on the same day the panel announced an indefinite delay in Waters' public trial.
Cindy Morgan Kim and Stacy Sovereign were placed on administrative leave on Nov. 19 -- the same day that the panel announced an indefinite delay of Waters trial. The suspensions were first reported by Politico.
by Susan Crabtree
The House ethics committee has placed two of its attorneys on administrative leave following missteps in the case against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), according to a source familiar with the matter.
By John Bresnahan
Two attorneys for the House ethics committee have been placed on indefinite "paid administrative leave" stemming from serious problems within the secretive panel.
Morgan Kim, the deputy chief counsel and the lead attorney on the case of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), is one of the attorneys placed on leave, said several sources familiar with the controversy.
Stacy Sovereign, another committee lawyer, was also put on leave, these sources said.
by Larry Margasak
A recently discovered e-mail, which forced postponement of Rep. Maxine Waters' ethics trial, appears to bring the House ethics committee no closer to proving she tried to obtain a U.S. bailout — during the financial crisis — for a bank where her husband owns stock.
Waters, a California Democrat and a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, was to go on trial Monday before an ethics panel of eight congressional colleagues. She has maintained her innocence, and has been demanding for months that the trial be held.