Bush SEC Holdovers Cite Executive Privilege, Refuse to Answer Questions at Madoff Hearing Susie Madrak Crooks and Liars February 6, 2009 David Sirota on yesterdayâs hearing about Bernie Madoff: At a contentious Financial Services Committee hearing today about the failure of the Securities and Exchange Commission to prevent the Bernie Madoff scandal, the SECâs General Counsel cited executive privilege as reason that he and the SECâs enforcement branch were refusing to answer congressional inquiries. You can watch the video here - ( http://www.infowars.com/bush-sec-ho...refuse-to-answer-questions-at-madoff-hearing/ ) the executive privilege issue comes at about 5 minutes and 15 seconds into the clip. As youâll see, SEC officials refuse to answer the committeeâs basic questions about the Madoff scandal, and the agencyâs acting general counsel, Andy Vollmer (a Bush holdover and maxed-out donor to John McCainâs presidential campaign) explicitly cites executive privilege as his legal rationale for refusing to provide basic information to federal lawmakers. Congress has a constitutional obligation to engage in basic fact finding, both in order to legislate reforms at the SEC and to publicly expose how our economy was destroyed by sharks like Madoff. Now, Bush holdovers at the SEC are using executive powers - powers that are now President Obamaâs - to prevent Democratic lawmakers from doing their job. ****************************************************************** So the SEC seems to have "allowed" the Madoff scam to go on and today I hear info about Madoff - AIPAC ties for cycling funds to politicians.....this story is finally starting to make some sense to me now.
I wonder if "executive privilege" is equivalent to "taking the 5th" regarding not incriminating the sec..