AP: Dodd, Conrad Told Mortgage Deals Were Sweetened

The Associated Press is reporting that Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd was told from the very start that hes was getting a VIP mortgage discount:

Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation’s largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.

Both senators have said that at the time the mortgages were being written they didn’t know they were getting unique deals from Countrywide Financial Corp., the company that went on to lose billions of dollars on home loans to credit-strapped borrowers. Dodd still maintains he got no preferential treatment.

Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad’s two Countrywide mortgages in 2004 were for a beach house in Delaware and an eight-unit apartment building in Bismarck in his home state of North Dakota.

Robert Feinberg, who worked in the Countrywide’s VIP section, told congressional investigators last month that the two senators were made aware that “who you know is basically how you’re coming in here.”

“You don’t say ‘no’ to the VIP,” Feinberg told Republican investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press. Read the rest…

It’ll be fun to see how Sen. Dodd tries to spin this… My guess is the Senate Ethics Committee will give Dodd and Conrad a pass. California Sen. Barbara Boxer, the committee chairman, asked Mr. Feinberg if Sens. Dodd and Conrad received VIP treatment because they were senators. Feinberg replied that was not the case; they received breaks as other influential people in Countrywide’s “friends” of Angelo VIP program… That’ll be the loophole committee members use to vote against sanctions for Dodd and Conrad.

Regardless of what the Senate Ethics Committee decides Sam Caligiuri is right, if the allegations are true it’s time for Chris Dodd to resign. The people of Connecticut deserve better.