U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner rejects accusations of ignoring presidential order

U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner rejects accusations of ignoring presidential order

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday fought back against accusations made in a new book that he ignored President Barack Obama's order to consider dissolving Citigroup, saying the book bears no relation to reality.

Geithner, who participated in the White House press briefing on Monday, said that the accusations made in the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind were "sad little stories," while he "lived the original, and the reality...bears no relation" to the content of the book.

According to Suskind, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Geithner ignored Obama's order to consider dissolving Citigroup in 2009, and the president's authority was "systematically undermined or hedged by his seasoned advisers."

"I would never contemplate doing that," Geithner told reporters of the allegation.

According to reports, Obama didn't deny the Citigroup anecdote in an interview with the author of the book Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and The Education of a President, which hits bookstores on Tuesday.

White House Spokesman Jay Carney, however, denied the allegations, saying "what we know is that very simple things, facts that could be ascertained - dates, titles, statistics, quotes - are wrong in this book."

"Based on that, I would caution anyone to assume that if you can't get those things that you suddenly get the broader analysis right. That analysis is wrong," said Carney.

In Feb. 2009, after Citigroup was rescued in a massive federal bailout, it was announced that the Obama administration would take more than a third of the firm's equity stake in the company by turning billions in emergency aid into common shares, in an effort to prevent the bank's bankruptcy.

Editor: yan

English.news.cn   2011-09-20 04:04:01 FeedbackPrintRSS
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (Xinhua)