Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich ripped into Ken Lewis during the latter’s testimony on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

The congressman, among other things, accused the Bank of America chief executive of flirting with perjury in his calculated responses and of “playing the victim”.

Here are some highlights of the fiery exchanges between the two, via several hours spent half-listening to C-Span 3 and the NY Times excellent live coverage of the testimony.

From FT Alphaville’s notes:

approx 1:03pm, Kucinich [in response to suggestions that Bernanke had "put a gun to the head" of Lewis to close the Merrill deal]: “It is quite possible it is Bank of America that put a gun to the head of the Federal Reserve by threatening to invoke a MAC”

From the NY Times:

Money and Misconceptions | 1:12 p.m.: “It did not surprise me that they gave us more because they wanted to get the Merrill deal done,” Mr Lewis said in response to a question about whether he was surprised by the additional government assistance.

Mr. Kucinich then went on a rant, saying, “There has been a misconception here that the government put a gun to Bank of America to do the deal, when in fact it was Bank of America that put the gun to the government” to help it close the Merrill deal.

“This is not credible; you are trying to change the scenerio” to being a victim of government pressure, Mr. Kucinich said.

Seeking Absolution? | 1:06 p.m.: Mr. Kucinich reads another e-mail from the Fed denying Mr. Lewis’s apparent request for a letter confirming that the government forced him to do the Merrill deal.

Asked again about the request for the letter, Mr Lewis said he recalls asking Mr. Bernanke for “something in writing” that confirmed the details of the government’s assistance.

“Were you trying to absolve yourself from acquiring Merrill Lynch?” Mr. Kucinich asked.

Lewis, in response, said no.

Related links:
Will Lewis convince Congress he really is “good at this”? – FT Alphaville
Lewis said Fed pushed Merrill deal – FT
Ken Lewis’ prepared testimony – FT
The Fed/Bank of America e-mail trail

This entry was posted by Stacy-Marie Ishmael on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 19:07 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with bank of america, Dennis Kucinich, ken lewis. Edit this entry.