Blaine Luetkemeyer: “As somebody who has been on both sides of the table with regard to financial services--as a regulator and on the other…”

“As somebody who has been on both sides of the table with regard to financial services--as a regulator and on the other side of the table as a businessperson--I think I have a unique perspective on what is going on here. We also have a couple of reports from the Oversight and Government Reform Committee that took the emails of both of these agencies--their own emails--and showed them to be engaged in Operation Choke Point activities with the intent not to go after somebody who is doing something illegal, but to go after people who are doing something legal. That is the difference. I support, as the gentleman indicated a minute ago, some of the activities of the regulators in going after bad actors. I support that 110 percent. As a former regulator, I am with the gentleman all the way. My problem is what is going on with Operation Choke Point as we are going after legal businesses that are doing legal business. That is a big difference because their own emails indicate their own, internal attorneys--the legal authorities in their own agencies--questioned their own ability to be doing what they are doing. This should send a chill down the spine of every single American when you have the Department of Justice's own attorneys telling them we shouldn't be doing this because this is not legal. Yet this is the legal entity that is supposed to be leading our country and providing us protection with the law, itself.…”