Democrat Lawyer: McCain Innocent in Keating 5 case

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/06/mccain_lawyers_p..._back_o

In an interview, Bennett (the Washington lawyer and Democrat who
served as special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee during the
Keating Five investigation) said McCain should never have been dragged
into the ethics case to begin with.

He said that after his own lengthy investigation, he came to the
conclusion that the case against McCain and former Sen. John Glenn (D-
Ohio) "should have been dropped"

because the evidence suggested that once McCain understood that the
Justice Department was investigating Keating, he backed off any
involvement.

Dowd noted that McCain threw Keating,once a strong supporter, out of
his office after Keating pressed him to intervene in his case.

Bennett said former Sen. Howell Hefflin (D-Ala.) insisted that the two
be included in the formal public inquiry because otherwise there would
have been a month of public hearings "with no Republicans in the
dock."

The other members of the Keating Five were Democrats.

On Oct 7 2008 12:19 PM, Lute wrote:

>
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/06/mccain_lawyers_p..._back_o
>
> In an interview, Bennett (the Washington lawyer and Democrat who
> served as special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee during the
> Keating Five investigation) said McCain should never have been dragged
> into the ethics case to begin with.
>
> He said that after his own lengthy investigation, he came to the
> conclusion that the case against McCain and former Sen. John Glenn (D-
> Ohio) "should have been dropped"
>
> because the evidence suggested that once McCain understood that the
> Justice Department was investigating Keating, he backed off any
> involvement.
>
> Dowd noted that McCain threw Keating,once a strong supporter, out of
> his office after Keating pressed him to intervene in his case.
>
> Bennett said former Sen. Howell Hefflin (D-Ala.) insisted that the two
> be included in the formal public inquiry because otherwise there would
> have been a month of public hearings "with no Republicans in the
> dock."
>
> The other members of the Keating Five were Democrats.


The word "innocent" is being used by you in a totally false way. Bennett
is saying that he felt the case against McCain should have been dropped
because he was less culpable than three others who were being
investigated; that is far different from saying that McCain was "innocent."

These are the undisputed facts, even assuming that what Bennett is now
saying is correct:

1) After McCain and the other senators met twice with regulators, they
backed off their plans to close Keating's savings and loan. Former
regulator William Black, one of the people in on that meeting, said the
cost to taxpayers of that biggest-ever failure of a savings-and-loan grew
from $1 billion to $3.4 billion during those two years. Bennett said the
other senators were more culpable than McCain and kept up the pressure on
regulators even after that second meeting, while McCain dropped the
effort. These two meetings occurred after McCain "threw Keating out of his
office", which means the damage was done to the taxpayers after McCain
pulled this theatrical stunt.

2) Keating and friends donated $112,000 to McCain's campaigns over the
years

3) McCain's wife and father's company invested $359,000 in a Keating
shopping center.
McCain's attorney John Dowd said yesterday that McCain was not aware of
his wife's investment. But the Washington Post reported that McCain
admitted knowing about the investment during Senate hearings on the issue.
So either McCain lied yesterday or he forgot his own sworn testimony from
years ago.

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