LaRouche: Dump Loretta Lynch as Attorney General Nominee!

On Saturday, Feb. 14, in response to the fact that Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, formally placed a hold on the confirmation of Loretta Lynch as Obama’s nominee for Attorney General, Lyndon LaRouche stated:

“I think they should dump her as well as putting a hold on her.”

In 2012, Lynch negotiated a $1.9 billion settlement with HSBC, after the bank admitted to facilitating money-laundering by Mexican drug cartels and helping clients evade U.S. sanctions.

Now there are questions over why she did not also pursue HSBC over evidence that its Swiss branch helped U.S. taxpayers hide their assets from tax authorities internationally, including in the UK, France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, India, and Argentina.

The new data, leaked by a whistleblower, was obtained by French tax authorities and shared with the U.S. government in 2010, raising questions over why the Department of Justice has yet to take action against HSBC in the U.S.

On Friday, Grassley’s staff drafted a new set of questions for Lynch, demanding to know when Lynch became aware of the HSBC Swiss data and what she did about it.

Lynch’s 2012 deal with HSBC sparked outrage on Capitol Hill two years ago, as Republicans and Democrats denounced a settlement they said let the bank off the hook by avoiding criminal charges against the bank or its executives.

In addition to Grassley, another Republican senator on the committee, Louisiana’s David Vitter, is also pushing Lynch over the HSBC tax scandal. Vitter’s formal submission of questions to Lynch, seen by the Guardian, asks: “Did you personally become aware of the HSBC leaked information detailing the tax evasion scheme?”

The Louisiana senator asks why there was no immediate move to prosecute the bank in 2010, adding: “Why, nearly five years after the DoJ became aware of the tax evasion scheme, have no criminal charges been brought?”

“Reports of these serious violations of U.S. law are nearly five years old, yet no criminal charges have ever been brought against HSBC for the alleged tax evasion scheme under your leadership of the eastern district of New York,” Vitter states in his submission to Lynch.

Grassley is also planning to ask Lynch whether the recent disclosures will have any bearing on HSBC’s perceived compliance with the 2012 settlement.