Press Release: Corporate Attorney Meehan Says "NO" to Wall Street Reform

Press Release

Today, Representative Bryan Lentz released the following statement in support of Wall Street reform and critical of corporate attorney Pat Meehan's opposition to the bill. The bill, already passed by both houses in Congress, will go to the President's desk to be signed in to law after the conference committee report approved this morning is voted on early next week.

Though Pat Meehan waited to announce his position until mounting pressure from voters and the media made his silence on a major legislative issue indefensible, many had already assumed Meehan was against Wall Street reform after 40% of his first quarter fundraising came from PACs representing those who wanted the reform bill to fail--PACs led by Republican leaders like John Boehner, who take millions from Wall Street and have tried to block reform every step of the way.

Meehan's membership in a George W. Bush "task force" that failed to prosecute the corporate financial crimes it was supposed to in the years leading up to the near-collapse of the financial system underscores his refusal to hold Wall Street fat cats and big banks accountable.

"Protecting the taxpayers' hard-earned money is a top priority. The financial collapse highlighted the drastic need for financial reform and hardworking, middle-class Americans should be protected from irresponsible and predatory financial institutions and practices," said Lentz. "We need to make sure that a financial collapse of this magnitude never happens again by making this law and holding Wall Street and big banks accountable."

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has called the financial reform bill "a pretty sensible approach", explaining, "There are a lot of very strong measures" that take action to prevent another financial collapse because of institutions "too big to fail'.

"Pat Meehan opposes the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, an organization that will monitor big banks and financial services to protect consumers from unethical and irresponsible financial products," stated Lentz. "Meehan joins his Republican leaders and continues to defend Wall Street at the expense of hardworking Americans."

The corporate law firm where Pat Meehan currently "focuses on representing multi-national corporations and individuals in white collar criminal matters" has paid Meehan's salary since he quit his job as U.S. Attorney for his failed run at governor.
The firm touts Meehan's participation in "drafting the Thompson Memorandum …which set forth standards for federal prosecutors in determining whether to bring criminal prosecutions against companies and their agents",[1] apparently in hopes that nobody would remember the Thompson Memorandum's stunning failure at corporate prosecution.
After many measures of the memo were ruled unconstitutional by a U.S. District Judge and organizations as diverse as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Bar Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Business Roundtable came together to protest the Thompson memo, the Department of Justice was forced to back off the memo and replace it with guidelines less universally-reviled. Even now, the parts of the Thompson Memo that are still in effect make it easier for criminal corporations to escape prosecution by simply paying a fine.

"As a prosecutor, Pat Meehan let the people down by failing to stop corporate financial crime and letting criminal corporations off easy. As a corporate attorney, he now defends those same multi-national corporations and white-collar criminals," said Lentz. "Now, he wants to go to Washington to stand against necessary financial reform--Pat Meehan has served Wall Street long enough."

Meehan recently demonstrated one reason why he has been so evasive about answering questions with his "utter disaster"[2] of a press conference last week, one some called "a huge -- and unforced -- blunder"[3]. After Meehan's "histrionics" fell apart when he "stumbled" and "couldn't provide any proof"[4] in response to skeptical reporters' questions, Lentz "upstaged [Meehan] at the microphone" [5] as "an increasingly red-faced Meehan looked on."[6] Was this the best candidate the Republicans could produce, or was this the candidate appointed by the corrupt GOP machine?

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