In less than 36 hours, a petition by Rebuild the Dream calling on the Department of Justice to focus on prosecuting crimes done by Wall Street executives during the financial crisis has collected more than 50,000 signatures.
“Tell the DOJ: Done with Edwards? Investigate Wall Street,” the petition was headlined. That was in the wake of the Department of Justice’s failed effort to get a guilty verdict against former presidential candidate John Edwards on charges that he illicitly used campaign funds to cover up an affair.
The campaign picks up a drumbeat we started earlier this year with our own call to the Obama administration to use its mortgage fraud task force to investigate and bring cases against Wall Street executives whose illegal actions caused the financial crisis. We will be continuing this push at the Take Back the American Dream conference June 18-20, where we will have a plenary session on “Taking on Wall Street.”
It’s not clear from news reports how much taxpayer money the Department of Justice spent trying to get Edwards thrown in jail for getting a supporter to put up money to keep his affair quiet.
What is clear is that the money and time would have been far better spent building a case against people like former Bank of America chief executive Kenneth J. Lewis.
Lewis, we learned today in The New York Times, is alleged to have passed on misleading information with the federal government and to Bank of America shareholders about potential losses the bank would incur by buying Merrill Lynch in December 2008. The losses “would prompt a second taxpayer bailout of $20 billion,” on top of $25 billion the bank and Merrill had received from the government in 2008 as the two were merging.
A filing in a stockholder lawsuit against Bank of America includes “sworn testimony from Mr. Lewis in which he concedes that before Bank of America stockholders voted to approve the deal he had received loss estimates relating to the Merrill deal that were far greater than reflected in the figures that had appeared in the proxy documents filed with regulators,” the Times reported.
If lying about sex gets you a Justice Department indictment in which the penalty could be up to 30 years in prison, shouldn’t Kenneth Lewis be facing an indictment for false information filed with federal regulators that resulted in taxpayers and investors to lose billions of dollars?
Rebuild the Dream says that with the 50,000 signatures, it will publish the petition in a Washington-area political newspaper to get the attention of Justice Department officials.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $125,000 in one-time donations and to add 1400 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy