Say Anything Blog

And Democrats didn’t have much of a choice.  Locking Republicans out of the committee room wasn’t going to work for long, and with other Democrats joining the chorus asking for the subpoenas, this was just a matter of time.

Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee agreed Friday night on language for a wide-reaching subpoena of Countrywide Financial’s VIP lending program as part of an investigation into allegations of influence peddling by the company at all levels of government, committee aides said.

The subpoena, which was sent out Friday night, will ask the lender to fork over documents relating to its “Friends of Angelo” program – named for CEO Angelo Mozilo, who allegedly offered favorable mortgage rates to persons of influence.

Republicans and Democrats agreed to request documents relating to a wide range of government employees – including members of the executive branch, House members and staffers, officers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and employees of state and local governments. Senators will not be included in the House’s investigation.

The subpoena specifies that the ethics committee will receive and redact all documents that identify members of the House.

Other records that will be delivered include the number of enrollees between 1996 and 2008, any taped telephone conversations regarding the program and emails between Countrywide officials, according to the subpoena obtained by POLITICO.

That the ethics committee gets to redact the names of any House members involved in the “VIP Program” is bogus, but it is perhaps the concession Issa had to make to get the larger batch of goods.

You can view the subpoena here.

This is a big, big step.  And proof that, despite the Senate Ethics Committee’s rather shallow and unsubstantiated exonneration of Senators Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd, this scandal is still very much alive.