Timothy Geithner, through his attorneys has asked a federal judge to block a subpoena requesting information about a phone call he is alleged to have made to Harold McGraw. I have dealt with this emerging scandal here and here. In brief, after Standard Poor downgraded US debt the chairman of its parent company, McGraw Hill, received a phone call from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner promising there would be consequences. Since then the DOJ has brought a lawsuit against Standard and Poor over its ratings of banks leading up to the financial meltdown of 2008. McGraw Hill claims that the motive for the suit is retaliation for the debt downgrade. Using Geithner's public calendar S&P lawyers have determined that he made the call just 5 minutes after meeting with Obama.
“The Supreme Court and other courts have long recognized that high-ranking public officials should be shielded from discovery requests absent extraordinary showings that the discovery is necessary and that all efforts have been made to avoid it and limit its burdensomeness,” Geithner's attorneys argue.
In other words he doesn't want to talk about it.
Terrence Checki, executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, also asked the judge to set aside S&P’s subpoena for information. Evidently Geithner vented his frustrations to him.
“Mr. Checki is an executive of the New York Fed, which is not an agency of the federal government, let alone a part of the Justice Department,” according to the filing. “He could not, and did not, play any role in the decision to sue S&P.”
You probably didn't know the fed is not an agency of the federal government did you? We'll see if the judge can figure that out.
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