GOP Senator not satisfied with information provided to Judiciary Committee about Lynch's hand in deal to take almost $2-billion in fines from HSBC, in lieu of more serious penalties against the bank and/or individual prosecutions against persons at HSBC
HSBC's alleged banking crimes were connected to money laundering for drug cartels and terrorist organizations
Senate Democrats are miffed and quickly play the race card
According to the report in Breitbart News, Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee have stalled the nomination of U.S. attorney Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder as President Barack Obama’s Attorney General; and member of the committee, Louisiana Senator David Vitter says it’s because of questions about Lynch's role in not bringing criminal charges in a white collar crime scandal involving HSBC bank (See "Vitter: Holdup on Holder Replacement Over HSBC Persecution" by Matthew Boyle, 2/12/15, Breitbart News [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/12/vitter-holdup-on-holder-replacement-loretta-lynch-over-hsbc-persecution/]). The article also noted that "Vitter, a hardline conservative, said in his statement on Thursday that this is very troubling and that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the full Senate, need to know everything that happened with HSBC’s case and Lynch’s role in all of it before they can vote on her nomination."
According to Matthew Boyle's report for Breitbart, while serving as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Lynch had been quoted in 2012 as saying HSBC didn’t act on”numerous red flags and warnings about the money laundering risks.” Lynch also said that HSBC “routinely did business with entities on the U.S. sanctions list” adding that the bank engaged in “evading U.S. prohibitions on such transactions by disguising the source of the funds so the payments would go through.” In spite of all that, nobody went to prison or even faced a criminal trial in the money laundering case, due to Lynch’s and others’ efforts. HSBC got off by making a payment of a large fine to the government. It was also noted in the Breitbart article that a criminal conviction on the money laundering violations could have also resulted in a prohibition of HSBC's doing business in the United States.
TENSE PARTISAN ATMOSPHERE BREWING OVER DELAY OF LYNCH'S VOTE ON THE COMMITTEE
With this and Lynch’s outspoken support for President Obama’s executive amnesty, which most GOP members of Congress (even many Democrats) view as unconstitutional, what happens moving forward remains to be seen.
According to Breitbart, "Democrats expressed outrage at Vitter’s delay on Thursday, as Lynch had been expected to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, for instance, complained that it seemed prejudicial against Lynch compared to other nominees. 'Clearly she’s been treated differently, and I guess that’s what I object to, because there are sensitivities,' Feinstein said."
3 comments:
Interesting stuff.
MSM is not covering this.
And Gale you were one of the only outliers even questioning Lynch's nomination. Kudos to Gale! If this was grade school you'd definitely get a sticker today.
COUNTERPOINT: THE "ON THE OTHER HAND" EDITION
Senator Diane Feinstein does have a point. The Senate does not usually dig into these kinds of matters.
Look at what the "Old Bulls" of the GOP do on this whole thing. I'll bet they don't open the lid on the HSBC deal. AG Eric Holder and AG Designate Loretta Lynch are not alone in thinking that HSBC is "too big to fail..." -- which means too big to sternly prosecute.
As for discriminating against Loretta Lynch -- she is virtually unique in being nominated for AG while still in the position of U.S. Attorney and with HSBC still a pending matter.
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