As the 2012 presidential campaign heated up, Attorney General Eric Holder staged a news conference to deflect stinging criticism that his boss President Obama was soft on prosecuting the captains of Wall Street whose firms were responsible for the mortgage meltdown.
Holder recited a litany of investigations, prosecutions and indictments by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice as proof the administration had made it a top priority to aggressively pursue criminal cases against executives responsible for mortgage fraud.
There was only one problem with the numbers duly reported at the time by the lapdog mainstream media. The figures were bogus. False. Misleading.
A scathing 52-page audit released this month by the justice department's Office of Inspector General not only exposed the cooked figures but debunked the idea that the Holder's stormtroopers prioritized criminal cases for mortgage fraud.
On October 9 just months before the 2012 presidential vote, Holder announced that the department had charged 530 defendants with criminal violations, including 172 executives. He claimed that 285 criminal indictments were filed in federal courts in the previous 12 months.
Not a single figure was accurate. Not even close. Last year the FBI provided a memorandum to the inspector general admitting "that several of the statistics announced during the press conference were substantially overstated." That is Washington-speak for distorting the truth.
The FBI verified it filed 110 criminal cases, not 530, against 107 defendants, not 172 executives. None were Wall Street heavyweights. Holder also had claimed the criminal cases amounted to $1 billion in fraud. The FBI reported the actual number was $95 million.
This was not a simple case of Holder just reciting numbers subordinates provided him. The FBI told the inspector general it knew the data was filled with errors and inaccuracies. Despite that fact, the justice department continued to cite the numbers for at least 10 months after Holder's news event.
Moreover, Holder was given the resources to go after Wall Street cheaters. In fiscal 2009-2011, the FBI received $196 million in taxpayer funds for the purpose of investigating mortgage duplicity after the attorney general claimed it was an administration priority.
In its findings, the inspector general's report contained this rebuke: "However, we also determined during the audit that the Department of Justice did not uniformly ensure that mortgage fraud was prioritized at a level commensurate with the information in (Holder's) public statements."
Even sifting through the Beltway gobbledygook, the report makes it clear Holder was responsible for knowingly making false statements. It shows the lengths to which the Obama campaign was willing to go in the 2012 election to secure a second term.
Despite the shocking revelations, only one major news outlet covered the inspector general's findings. Bloomberg News summarized the report thusly:
"Justice Department and the FBI had every incentive to juice the statistics because of the relentless criticism they received over their failure to identify even a single senior Wall Street executive who committed crimes related to the financial crisis."
The truth is Wall Street bigwigs were among the biggest contributors to President Obama's re-election campaign. The securities and investment industry shoveled bushels of cash totaling $22.8 million into Obama's 2012 presidential run, according to OpenSecrets.org. There was no way Holder would bite the hands feeding the campaign.
Holder deliberately mislead the public for political gain. He should be held accountable especially in light of his refusal to assume responsibility for the lies. Congress needs to haul Holder on the carpet to explain his serious breach of ethical conduct.
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