CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Secret
Countrywide Phone Tapes Destroyed:
The discovery that Countrywide Financial Corp. recorded phone
conversations with borrowers in a controversial mortgage program that
included public officials — and that those recordings have been
destroyed — has prompted new congressional calls for more information
about the program.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the ranking Republican on the
House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is trying to subpoena the
remaining records of Countrywide’s VIP loan program. So far, the
committee’s chairman, New York Democratic Rep. Edolphus Towns, has
turned down that request. . . . Among the prominent VIP program
borrowers were two Democratic senators, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and
Kent Conrad of North Dakota. Both men have denied wrongdoing, and said
they never asked for favorable loan terms from Countrywide. . . .
In August, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Towns, the
oversight committee chairman, had received two mortgages from
Countrywide — one on his home in Brooklyn and the other on a house in
Florida. The loan documents indicated that both had been processed
through the VIP unit. At the time, a Towns spokeswoman said his
decision not to subpoena the VIP records had “nothing to do with his
mortgages.” If the mortgages, which were originated in 2003, came
through the VIP unit, Mr. Towns was unaware of that fact and never
asked for special treatment, the spokeswoman said.
Sure is convenient that those tapes are gone. . . .
Posted at 10:03 am by 
