The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918
Then there is the Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd who allegedly got special mortgage deals from Countrywide, who gave preferential rates to 'friends' of company's chairman.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25140560/
For an interesting article purporting to detail the House Financial Services Committee Chairs long history with Fannie Mae, See http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx
"House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former 'spouse' was Fannie Mae executive."
The link below describes how some in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN, a group Obama has a long association with. See:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
And then there is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who allegedly has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm.
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm.
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The essence of fair criminal law, however, is adequate notice to the defendant that his actions were criminal, not merely that he was doing something he was "not supposed to do." If the law wants to make it a crime to "manipulate" then it should define that concept and make it a specific crime rather than including it within the vague concept of fraud, or the even vaguer concept of honest services.
There is a considerable risk of scapegoating individuals who honestly believed they were going right up to the line but not over it. After an economic catastrophe, there is a tendency to move the goal posts and to make criminal that which was deemed acceptable before the catastrophe, but is now—retroactively—regarded as something investment bankers "were not supposed to do." This violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the constitutional prohibition against ex-post facto laws.
It is not easy to generate public sympathy for former "masters of the universe"—whiz kids who made tens, sometimes hundreds, of millions of dollars by taking risks that ended up costing taxpayers billions—all while they kept their bonuses and profits. But sympathy is not the issue. Potential misuse of criminal law is. If government is given the power to redefine crimes in order to retroactively punish previously lawful predatory conduct, we are all at risk.
That is why white collar criminal lawyers are busy preparing their clients for investigations, subpoenas and flipping witnesses. The race to the courthouse has already begun, with lawyers trying to be the first to offer up their clients as witnesses against former friends and colleagues, instead of themselves becoming defendants. The race, however, is not always to the swiftest but rather to the lowest on the totem pole—the underling who can provide evidence or testimony against the higher ups. The first rule of criminality in the U.S. is "always commit crimes with people more important than you are, so that you can turn them in rather than having them turn you in!"
So, a word to the formerly wise Wall Street whiz kids. Watch out for your friends. Pick your lawyers wisely. Make sure they are representing you and you alone—not your company. And hope and pray that you are not targeted as one of the scapegoats for the mortgage meltdown.
Alan M. Dershowitz is a professor of law at Harvard. His most recent book, The Case Against Israel's Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand In The Way of Peace, is being published by Wiley in early October.
© 2008
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