A statement sent my way from Phil Angelides, the chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, plays into this debate over the RMBS working group in some interesting ways. The crux of the matter is that Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican commissioner on the FCIC who did not sign onto the final report, made some statement [...]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Eric Schneiderman, co-chair of the newly titled “RMBS working group” investigating financial fraud, appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show last night (the interview starts around the 5:00 mark), and there were a few interesting moments. First you have his assessment of the the [...]

In addition to the proposed settlement, there’s news on the Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses front. (As an aside, I don’t know what to call this thing. You could say “Financial Fraud Unit,” but there’s already one of those. The name above is the official title, but it’s a mouthful. You could shorten [...]

If you want to see some tremendous activism that acknowledges advances while keeping the big picture squarely in mind, check out CREDO’s statement on the new financial fraud unit. It’s long, but important, so I’m going to put it here in full. After months of activism from people like you, President Obama announced in his [...]

Just to recap the last 24 hours in the rule of law: if you order the massacre a village of Iraqis, you will get your charges reduced to “dereliction of duty” and get sentenced to no more than three months confinement. Furthermore, the rest of your colleagues that participated in the incident will not serve [...]

When I started digging into whether this Monday meeting with HUD and DoJ officials to go over a proposal for a foreclosure fraud settlement was legitimate, I couldn’t find one state Attorney General who mattered actually committed to showing up. When I say AGs who “matter,” I mean the ones who have been critical of [...]

The people who at least have a line into the national conversation inform me that this potential foreclosure fraud settlement is more than a drill. I’m hearing what Yves Smith is hearing. The meeting next Monday will attempt to bully Democratic AGs to back up their President in an election year. As Marcy Wheeler writes, [...]

Everything you heard from Shaun Donovan yesterday about an “imminent” foreclosure fraud settlement is predicated on the idea that Democratic Attorneys General, of which between 1/3 and 1/2 have pursued or are supporting their own investigations, will sign onto the deal in the end. To help that along, Donovan, along with the short-timer at DoJ [...]

I’m not terribly concerned about the potential Senate Republican lawsuit over President Obama’s recent recess appointments. I am substantially more concerned about this challenge from South Carolina over their voter ID law, yet another challenge to the pre-clearance provisions in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina will sue the administration of President [...]

I keep hearing from everyone “in the know” that these foreclosure fraud settlement talks are just about wrapped up. Surely everyone’s just practicing their signatures for the big signing ceremony, right? Except that there hasn’t really been any news on the settlement for a few weeks. And now the number 3 at the Justice Department, [...]

The Justice Department, under the authority granted to them by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, rejected a voter ID law from South Carolina, making good on a promise to exercise vigilance on voting rights as we near the 2012 elections. Per the Voting Rights Act, DoJ must pre-clear changes to election law in [...]