WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- A top House Republican Tuesday demanded U.S. regulators turn over documents relating to civil charges against financial giant Goldman Sachs.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the ranking member of House Oversight committee, sent a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro, asking whether the commission had any contact with the White House, the Democratic Party or members of Congress or their staff about the Goldman Sachs case before the civil charges were announced last week, Politico reported Tuesday.
The letter --signed by eight other House Republicans -- demanded the SEC turn over "all known communications by any commission employee or employees with The New York Times or other news outlets prior to the commission's public announcement of the suit."
"(We) are concerned that politics have unduly influenced the decision and timing of the commission's controversial enforcement action against Goldman," the letter said.
White House Press Secretary Roberts Gibbs rejected the implication the announcement of the case against Goldman Sachs was timed for political advantage, Politic said.
"The SEC doesn't notify the White House of its enforcement actions and certainly didn't do so in this case," Gibbs said."
"(I)t's not as if the president began talking about financial reform sometime on Friday afternoon."
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Monday on PBS everyone at the White House learned of the SEC filing against Goldman Sachs the same way everyone else did "when it hit the news."
