Republicans seize on HSBC scandal to hold up Loretta Lynch's confirmation as Attorney General

[pampango]

Senate Republicans are seizing on the global tax scandal engulfing HSBC to delay the confirmation of Loretta Lynch, Barack Obama’s nominee for attorney general, the Guardian can reveal.

The Republican chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Chuck Grassley, was on Friday preparing a fresh tranche of questions for Lynch about the huge cache of leaked data showing how HSBC’s subsidiary helped conceal billions of dollars from domestic tax authorities.

HSBC could yet be prosecuted over tax-dodging scheme, warns Loretta Lynch. Obama’s nominee for attorney general negotiated a deal with HSBC two years ago that saw it avoid criminal charges but Lynch says DoJ still has powers to act

Grassley and another Republican senator are planning to investigate whether Lynch could have done more to stand up to the world’s second largest bank.

Lynch negotiated a controversial settlement with HSBC in 2012, after the bank admitted to facilitating money-laundering by Mexican drug cartels and helping clients evade US sanctions. Now there are questions over why she did not also pursue HSBC over evidence that its Swiss arm helped US taxpayers hide their assets.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/13/republicans-loretta-lynch-hsbc-revelations

Chuck Grassley - man of the people? Hardly. It is informative when republicans pretend to be concerned about rich people hiding their assets from the tax man. It only seems to happen in the context of blocking a Democratic proposal or nomination.

I wonder if Grassley will propose serious legislation to pursue and punish Americans involved in the HSBC affair. I didn't think so.

[Fred Sanders]

1. An epidemic of pretending by racist Republicans is fucking ignored by the media, it is criminal how

the media misinforms or non-informs. No consequences means it continues and continues, with the Let's Pretend Party getting away with perpetual lies.

[OKNancy]

2. They hate Holder even more, so holding her up means Holder

stays on longer. This is all just blocking because it's Obama's nominee.

[chelsea0011]

3. Republicans are holding up confirmation because she didn't stand up stronger to a bank?

Shouldn't that be a reason they (Republicans) would confirm her?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. Their "We're going to pretend to care about what big business does" schtick is already getting old

If she were a Republican AG nominee, I would think that they'd practically applaud her (and/or maybe criticize her for doing *too much*). They only care about what big business does in its spare time as much as they do about income inequality insofar as to how they think it hurts Democrats (whom have been the only ones worried about these problems and trying to do things about them) politically.