- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Securities
and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt, under heavy fire as a wave
of corporate scandals breaks, said on Sunday there was no need to release
the files on a 1991 probe of President Bush's stock sales.
-
- Appearing on two television talk shows to answer charges
that he is too cozy with corporate America to effectively regulate it,
Pitt vigorously defended his agency's performance and said he will not
resign.
-
- He accused Democrats of trying to score political points
with calls for the release of the investigatory files on Bush's stock sales
while he was a director of Texas-based Harken Energy Corp.
-
- "Unless there's a reason to re-open ancient history,
we should move on," Pitt said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
-
- "Why can't we focus on WorldCom, on Enron, on Qwest,
all these other companies where the American public is being injured? Why
are we diverted for mere political gain?" he said, although he said
he would release the files if Bush asked.
-
- The SEC investigated Bush for being up to 34 weeks late
in reporting stock sales worth more than $1 million but concluded he did
not engage in illegal insider trading. Bush's father was president at the
time.
-
- "The matter is closed," Pitt said, but Democrats
said Bush still needs to come clean about his past as a businessman.
|
