Kucinich Rips Lewis For Duping Shareholders (VIDEO)

Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis took a pounding Thursday from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. One of the most damning exchanges occurred between Lewis and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), when Kucinich exposed Lewis' request for government cover from shareholder lawsuits stemming from BofA's troubled merger with Merrill Lynch.

Prior to the merger, according to Kucinich, Lewis requested a letter from New York Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson declaring that the government had ordered him to acquire Merrill's losses. Kucinich presented e-mails from Bernanke and his general counsel contradicting Lewis' own claim that his lawyers didn't think disclosure of Merrill losses to his shareholders before the merger was necessary.

"'I don't think it's necessary or appropriate for us to give Mr. Lewis a letter along the lines he asked,'" Kucinich read from the general counsel's e-mail.

"Is it still your testimony that you don't recall asking for a letter to absolve you of your responsibility for acquiring Merrill Lynch's huge losses?" Kucinich asked Lewis.

After being shown the letters contradicting the testimony he had just given, the visibly anxious Lewis changed his testimony from, "I don't recall such a letter" to "What I do remember is calling Chairman Bernanke and asking him if he could give us something in writing along the lines of what the solution would be."

"We're now updating Mr. Lewis' previous testimony," Kucinich said. "That may help you escape perjury but it doesn't get away from the question of whether or not you were trying to absolve yourself of responsibility for acquiring Merrill Lynch's huge losses."

His having sought exculpation from Bernanke, Kucinich said, strengthens the case that Lewis violated securities law. "We would hope that a CEO would have both the good memory and the integrity to take responsibility for his decisions," Kucinich said, shortly before launching into a fiery finale:

"You are pretending that you didn't ask for help from the government to take the burden off your back, that you didn't ask for a letter. You're going to have to excuse me, but this is not credible. You're trying to change the scenario [to] you as a victim [from] you as a powerful CEO who made a decision that denied your stockholders, your shareholders material information that they needed prior to a vote on a merger, and I think that is the central point of this hearing, and I'm sorry that you haven't been forthcoming enough about that central point. Yield back."

WATCH:

(American News Project)

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Comments

[wanked]

Ahhhhh...o­ur governments shining light. !!! We love you Denis! Keep up the good work

[discourse jockey]

Too beautiful. Lewis almost cries.

[gbrooks]

I hope HuffPo increases their coverage of Kucinich, he's one of the few politicians whom I respect. Others who have earned my respect: Ron Paul and Jim Webb.

[KCFreedom]

Interesting that you never see Dennis Kucinich on the Sunday morning MSM political shows. Of course, that would bump out a Newt, Cheney, Kristol, McCain, Droopy Dog, etc.

So much for "liberal media".

[PhillyQuaker]

He goes on Fox once in a while. In fact, O'Reilly once told him, "Congressman, you have my vote."

[bolivare]

Kucinich is one of the few honest politicians in Washington.
I want him as president. But, the dem party and MSM do not want him in.
The MSM ignored him or abused him.
The dems attacked his seat in his home state to make him drop out.
Thats what we get for buying the same old lines from the same old politicians whose only purpose in life is to stay in power, no matter the cost.
We need more honest people like Kucinich. This man has stood up from day one to fight the good fight and to represent his constituents. I have yet to hear anything bad about this man. He's got a great sense of humor and is extremely intelligent.
I'll vote for him again over any other candidate. The rest just disappoint me again and again.

[KCFreedom]

Dennis always fights the fight.

I love his opening statements, the 1-2 minute ones when Congress opens for business. It makes C-Span worth watching once in awhile.

[Okieborn]

Damn I worked hard, as millions did for Change and I should have had a V8 =Kucinich !!!

[RTIII]

I do love Dennis. I'd have him as my president in a _minute._ He'd be WAY better than BHO...
.

[Rastaman9]

amen

KUCINICH 2012

[pfrogger]

Kucinich, our last hope.
Sadly that will never happen in this country.
Frankly the plutocracy do won the place.

[shamanbart]

Dennis Kucinich is someone we desperately need in Congress -- thankfully he's there holding the bankers' feet to the fire.

I, too, would have loved to see him as president, but unfortunately he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of victory in the 2008 campaign. The reason is simply there are way too many moderates, right-wingers and far-right extremists out there who vote. It will take a while before the majority of the American people realize that Democrats are good for the country and have a great agenda. For the past decade and more, too often the right-wing talking points are believed by the aforementioned groups and therefore they wouldn't take a chance on Kucinich. How else do you explain Bush getting the number of votes he did in 2000 and 2004 (other than the miscounted ones of course...)­?

I hope people take notice of what Kucinich is doing and keep that in mind next time he runs. Actually, he's the kind of person people from the left, center and right should appreciate -- a watchdog for the common good, not corrupt, not owned by special interests, a guy with some great ideas.

[Gatormouth]

Same here. So I pinned my hopes on Edwards, he bailed (thank God, in the end) - I couldn't go with Hil because of her Nafta/Walmart involvement and I had to go with Obama because he seemed the best progressive possibility left (Gore had snickered at "the sucking sound of those jobs going South" and he never ran anyway). So here I sit still running on hope in Rohrabacher's district. Sigh. No fair trade, no tax reform and any jobs created by this pump priming are going to be exported as fast as they can be along with any investment capital generated. Everything political touched by the U of Chicago seems to reek of Strauss or Friedman. Wish Kucinich was at least made Attorney General, anyway. Any way, keep hoping and keep voting!

[KCFreedom]

Another main reason Kucinich didn't get any farther than he did is the MSM marginalized him and in one of the debates, made sure he was asked about seeing a "UFO", even though he explained he didn't know what it was. Of course the right-wing machine took him to the cleaners on that one.

[AGarcia]

I know this sucks but he was TOO HONEST when he said he saw a UFO. The MSM jumped on it and his candidacy went out the window. I wanted him to atleast get the chance to debate alongside the rest. He's easily better than Edwards, Dodd, or Richardson (and I'm a latino). His story is amazing. When he was mayor he prevented the local power company from being privatized and now Cincinnati still has reasonable electric bills and the rest of the country's went sky high. Even the mafia wanted him dead. I really wanted him to be president but it wasn't his time. I hope he's around for 2016... he could do a lot of good.

[gbrooks]

I'm a libertaria­n-Republic­an and I would have happily voted for Dennis if he'd received the Dem nomination as would many other of us Ron Paul supporters.

He's a good man, not owned by the establishment. We disagreed with him on voting for the first bailout, and criticized him, but I think he learned quite quickly that it was a mistake.

[KCFreedom]

Wait, I'm absolutely certain Dennis voted against the first TARP bailout, while shrub was still in office. In fact, Dennis was one who led the fight against it. Is that the one you are talking about?

My own Dem Congressman voted against it on Monday, then changed his vote to yes on Friday. I'll never vote for that guy again, and I told his office that.

I'm a Ron supporter, too. And I would have voted for Dennis for pres in a heartbeat, for the same reasons you state.

[time4change2009]

My Congressman Kucinich is no joke !!!!

[mayzebra]

BOA sabotaged my kids trust fund!

[leevntheus]

I too was for Kucinich before Obama. In fact, I never WAS for Obama, until the MSM rigged it to be so. I certainly was not going to vote for McCain. But I was for Kucinich,R­ichardson,­Edwards,Cl­inton, Obama. MSM gave me my fifth choice. And to be perfectly honest - he's living up to that billing - no NADS no VISION....­no real AGENDA. President Obama....s­ir....we can't live on hope alone and you have done nothing but cave to every corporate boondoggle that has come your way. In fcat, I believe you to be a Faux Democrat - just another Corporatist in sheep's clothing..­..a good salesman but HARDLY A GRAND STATESMAN. (We should all never forget the murder of Paul Wellstone before the Cheney Coup began the war with Iraq, WELLSTONE should have been the man for President))

[dc2nm]

I love Kucinich..­.but I think you're wrong on Obama.

[zsja]

I second that motion... No matter how good DK is, this country would never elect him. This is the same electorate of which a huge percentage supprted shrub after all... But Obama rocks! such a breath of fresh air.

[KCFreedom]

I had a similar order, Kucinich, Edwards, Richardson, Dodd, Obama, Clinton.

I figured since O came up through the Chicago political machine, he was bought in there somewhere.

[zsja]

you figured wrong...

[Zebro]

Damn I love Kucinich!

I bet if this was 1920 before TV and America's superficial judgments he would be President. There's no better protector of the common man than DK. Bravo sir.

But I still love his intellect and courage to take on the criminals that society accepts(white collar). He should be attorney general.

[ram1952]

Can we have a list of people like Dennis. Feingold, Whitehouse­...... who else?

[secondsight]

I suggest you Google "Congressional Progressive Caucus" and you will find all the members of congress who belong to it and what their agenda is. Dennis Kucinich is among them and he has been very active from day one.

[pfrogger]

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?ContentID=166&ParentID=0&SectionID=4&SectionTree=4&lnk=b&ItemID=164
Progressive Caucus Member List

[111]

He is a courageous statesman with a great deal of integrity and I'm sorry he wasn't in the presidential election. He is not favored by the Democratic leadership because he fights for what he believes is right which seems to be at odds with what the Democratic party wants to do most of the time.

I was reading Bill Moyers interview with Mickey Edwards and what he said about the Rebublicans applies to the Democrats as well. Edwards said that Newt Gingrich "...decide­d that the purpose of the Republicans in Congress was not to carry out the fundamental principles that they had originally believed in, but to defeat Democrats.­...when the Congress..­.tries to vote a contempt citation against two people on the White House staff, Harriet Myers and Josh Bolton, who defy a Congressional subpoena, and Republicans in Congress walk out in protest, rather than engage in defending the branch of government that they're a part of. "

That is what we have been seeing played out on the stage for almost twenty years - a system of non-stop warfare between Dems and Republicans that sees the president as team captain who needs unquestioning loyalty if on their side or as an enemy to be defeated at all costs.

Few have displayed Kucinch's courage to publicly fight for his principles and confront the bad guys.
Thank you Dennis!!!