Sorry this is a long one, but it will catch you up on the “Bain bomb” that was dropped this morning that the Obama campaign used to falsely assert that Romney is a felon.
The Boston Globe ran a story this morning that Romney lied about when he left Bain Capital, asserting that he actually left Bain in 2002 and not 1999 as he has publicly stated. They had apparently found his name on a few SEC filings that they believed showed Romney was still running investments at Bain after 1999.
Thus, the Obama campaign jumped on this as though it were red meat and in a conference call with reporters they asserted that Romney may have committed a felony by misrepresenting his position at Bain (h/t PJ Tatler, via NRO):
In a conference call with reporters this morning, the Obama campaign focused on this morning’sBoston Globe story arguing that Mitt Romney remained at Bain through 2002. The Romney campaign has called the story “not accurate.”
“Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investment,” Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter asserted.
“If he was lying to the American people,” she added. “then that’s a real character and trust issue that the American people need to take very seriously.”
The Boston Globe then admits to plagiarizing the story from a couple of leftist conspiracy nuts instead of from their own reporting, and then Fortune drops the big bomb on the story and completely vindicates Romney:
FORTUNE – Now Fortune has obtained new evidence that supports Romney’s version of events.
Bain Capital began circulating offering documents for its seventh private equity fund in June 2000. Those documents include several pages specifying fund management. The section begins:
Set forth below is information regarding the background of the senior private equity investment professionals of Bain Capital. Also listed are certain investment professionals responsible for the day-to-day affairs of the Brookside and Sankaty funds, which are affiliated funds of Fund VII.
It then goes on to list 18 managers of the private equity fund. Mitt Romney is not among them. Same goes for an affiliated co-investment fund, whose private placement memorandum is dated September 2000.
Then there is Bain Capital Venture Fund — the firm’s first dedicated venture capital effort — whose private placement memorandum is dated January 2001. Romney also isn’t listed among its “key investment professionals,” or as part of its day-to-day operations or investment committee.
So basically, Romney wasn’t running these Bain investments as was misreported due to the fact that these leftists didn’t know what the hell they were reading.
Fortune notes that when the Obama campaign was informed of their error, this was their response:
After being informed of the Bain Capital documents, Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt emailed over the following statement:
“Mitt Romney either misled the American people or misrepresented himself to the SEC. Romney has said he had no authority or responsibility for managing Bain since 1999, but that has been proven false. Regardless of whether he was on the management committee for this particular deal, he remained President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board and he was legally responsible for every investment and decision made by Bain.”
What an idiot. They are still trying to stick to their guns even though Fortune just proved otherwise.
Lastly, the Romney campaign has blasted back at the Obama campaign for being so quick on the gun to call Romney a felon:
NRO – The Romney campaign is blasting deputy Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter in the aftermath of her suggestion this morning that Mitt Romney may have committed a “felony” and been misleading about his time at Bain.
“President Obama’s campaign hit a new low today when one of its senior advisers made a reckless and unsubstantiated charge to reporters about Mitt Romney that was so over the top that it calls into question the integrity of their entire campaign,” said Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades in a statement just released.
“President Obama ought to apologize for the out-of-control behavior of his staff, which demeans the office he holds,” Rhoades added. “Campaigns are supposed to be hard fought, but statements like those made by Stephanie Cutter belittle the process and the candidate on whose behalf she works.”