Ethics Committee Probes Countrywide Loans for Senators

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports: There is not too much news in reports of  secret testimony a former Countrywide executive gave to the Senate Ethics Committee on loans he processed for Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad in 2003.Robert Feinberg has been saying since last fall that Dodd and Conrad knew they were part of a VIP program when they both refinanced with Countrywide. He’s given the story to the Justice Department and reporters. News of the loans first surfaced last summer as Congress was considering ways to address the subprime mortgage crisis. Both Conrad and Dodd were instrumental in those negotiations. Now, as Congress is considering a health care overhaul and Conrad and Dodd are both in the news for that effort, comes word from AP that Feinberg has given his story to the Senate Ethics Committee.Conrad, who donated money he received from points being taken off his loans to Habitat for Humanity last year, said today he’ll provide his side to the ethics committee too and that he expects a good outcome from him from that notoriously tight-lipped committee. To be fair, that’s a pretty low bar. Sen. David Vitter, who admitted to visiting a prostitute while he was a sitting congressman, had his ethics inquiry “dismissed without prejudice.” And Sen. Larry Craig, who pled guilty to some untoward behavior in a Minnesota Airport bathroom, got little more than a public admonition. Still, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, the Senate Ethics Committee ultimately has to say on the issue. Both Dodd and Conrad have long maintained that they neither sought out, nor knew they were getting a special deal, though Conrad didn’t just call his neighborhood mortgage broker – he did that too – he called a friend who happened to be with then-head of Countrywide Financial Angelo Mozilo. Conrad has said he was offered an identical rate by other loan providers. Dodd’s office has released a memo with research they say proves he was given no better than a market rate when he refinanced with Countrywide in 2003. Dodd, who is the fight of his political life as he seeks reelection, has a special section of his website set up to refute the claims.Republicans in the House of Representatives, meanwhile, released a report in May that used Dodd and Conrad’s loans as part of their argument that Countrywide had bought influence on Capitol Hill.