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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he personally pocketed about $35,000 per year for his work with mortgage giant Freddie Mac.
For the first time on Monday, Gingrich pegged his own personal earnings from an extended consulting contract between his firm and Freddie Mac. His namesake firm, the Gingrich Group, earned at least an estimated $1.6 million, according to an initial Bloomberg News report on the relationship.
"I hope, starting today, we can clear up this and frankly I hope my friends will take down the ads that are fundamentally inaccurate," Gingrich explained to supporters during a question-and-answer session with supporters in Iowa. "One, the contract. Freddie Mac hired Gingrich Group, which is a firm which had offices in three cities. Of the total contract, it was a six year period contract, of the total amount they keep talking about I probably got about $35,000 a year."
As if to minimize just how much he earned as a result of the contract, Gingrich said his yearly take-home from working with Freddie Mac was less than what he would earn in fees for delivering a single speech.
"Now that's less than I was making per speech so that's what my particular interest in it was that amount," he said.
The former speaker's work for the troubled mortgage giant, which was taken into government conservatorship in 2008 along with its counterpart, Fannie Mae, has emerged as a point of scrutiny for Gingrich's foes in the Republican presidential primary.
"For weeks now, Speaker Gingrich has struggled to explain exactly what he did in return for $1.6 million in fees from Freddie Mac," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an email this morning to reporters. "Not only has he distanced himself from his past work, but he is also distancing himself from the money he earned -- saying it was for ‘overhead’ or that he didn’t ‘personally’ receive it."
Texas Rep. Ron Paul has also vocally criticized Gingrich's work for Freddie Mac, having highlighted that relationship in television ads running in Iowa.
Gingrich has repeatedly denied having lobbied on Freddie Mac's behalf, and sought to highlight work he had done that might have conflicted with the lender's financial interests.
"Both Congressman Rick Lazio, who was the Chairman of the House reform effort when I was the Speaker, and Congressman JC Watts, who was the head for a number of years of the Freddie Mac watch committee, have both come out publicly and said it is bologna to suggest that I any way tried to use any influence with anybody on the Freddie Mac issue," he said. "So I just want to come down to what did we provide. We provided strategic advice."
The total extent of how much wealth Gingrich might have gained as a result of the contract, though, is murky. Whatever fees were collected by the Gingrich Group could have contributed to building the value of the former speaker's consulting practice.
NBC's Chuck Todd has more.
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I SO BADLY want to vote for a Republican candidate this coming election. So badly. But, they insist on making this difficult.
We so desperately need a viable third party so the guys like Huntsman and Paul can have a chance to be heard.
There is nothing better...they all share the same ideals.
With Newt you know what you're getting. One big fat liar and greedy gut.
RackNStack....you are SOOO right about that! Although an Independent, I agree with most everything RP says and when Huntsman speaks I see a dude who is Presidential...is the conservative ideology so narrow that they would elect individuals of questionable character or intelligence? There has to be another way....
~~~~~~~~~~~ GOP Lowlife Mitch McConnell called the G.I.Bill a Welfare" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Pumpkin-head and his Tea-Retards are a Dishonor to this Nation"~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Repubacons are fools for not looking at Huntsman, he is the best of them all. Huntsman is a man of Integrity & Honor.
I thought so, as well. Huntsman has thoughtfulness, brains, and international political experience. However, he said in one of the early debates that he would abolish the EPA--and he owns chemical companies. That is enough for me to see that he is our for his own interest like all the other GOP contenders (except for Noot, who loves his country so much that it make him cheat on his wives!)
Took Newt the Hoot some time to think up this lie.
Newt is a very dangerous man who lied and deceived his way through life. This lowlife would do serious harm to this Country. Wake up America this guy is a loser.
Only $35,000 a year? As if that is supposed to make us say, "Only that much? That is nothing!" Even if it were true....$35,000 a year would sure make me smile.
35K would make you smile? You are a loser. You dont seem bothered that Barney frank was suppose to oversee the bank and didnt. LOSER
You liberals are amazing. You have no problems with Barney Frank not doing his job in overseeing the banks, including fannie and freddy yet you blast Gingrich for performing legal ( vs illegal) work for an american company. WHat the @!$%#kkkk is wrong with you people? No intellectually honest at all. Pathetic, really pathetic
Better go back and check you facts, Barney could not single handily investigated or regulate, that is thanks to the right side of the isle dewatering the legislation.
alan grobb you are amazing. this article is about newt, not frank and dodd, and how do you know how "you liberals" feel about them?
You conservatives are amazing. You will rationalize ANYTHING done by a so called conservative. It's OK for News to leave wife #1 for wife # 2 then leave wife # 2 for wife # 3 because Bill got a hummer from Monica. It's OK for Rick Perry to be stupidest candidate to ever run for office because Obama included US territories as states in one speech. It's OK for Newt to take 1.6 million from a government agency, then lie about what he did for the agency, then lie about how much got, then lie again about how much he got paid, because a Democrat may have profited from the same agency. The list goes on and on and on. This is why Republican and hypocrisy have been interchangeable terms for more than 20 years.
Rommey has earned million from his investment and he is unemployed.
Gingrich is employed with his own investment and one speech can add at least more than 35000.00 in his pocket.
The part of the 90% earn about 38000.00 per year and pay 35% of the tax.
That is the differences between the wealth of 10% and the 90% .
Newt, knows, like all old men with young women, no money, no honey
yea, i said it.
I guess Newt figures his income the same way he funnelled his Political contributions last time he put his hat in he ring. What I am talking about is that when he finally dropped out of the race he had a hugh surplus of contributed funds that were funnelled to his solely owned firm which he is the sole beneficiary.
Cain is playing from Newt's play book in that all of his left over political contributions will end up in his pockets the same way as Newt's, that is unless Ms. Cain tells him it is hers if he ever wants to sleep in the same bed again.
Who Cares??? The democrats have been stealing millions each and no word on that... What was obama's secret deal with the drug companies? What was barny franks, bho's, and chris dodds take from the banking scam? What was chris dodds take from the health care reform? What what was polusi's take on the insider trading on legislation she fostered and approved? Get a life media and America, you have been officially taken to the cleaners and WILL vote for them again. What a bunch of losers...
Please clue me in as to secret deals, I have not heard of any to the extent you claim. Please provide any inside info you have.
better yet, report these secret deals to the FBI..run, don't walk!
Strategic advice???
Really...
So - "Don't try to compete with Wall St. in the sub-prime market" apparently wasn't part of the strategic advice..
Umm... yeah... the smartest guy in the room... yup...
"""So I just want to come down to what did we provide. We provided strategic advice."""
ah ah funny 1200,
Yeah, translation is: "strategic advice" in Washington is like your "opinion" downtown L.A.
When you think you know where things are headed( cause you are connected to law makers), you can sell Strategic Advice left and right. So we can all sell Strategic Advice to Newt.
Here is a good piece of freebie Strategic Advice Newt: Go Home to your loved ones, it doesn't seem like a good investment of your time to run for President. We'll tell you the same next week but you gonna have to pay a hundred( thousand)
So the Reptile "only made about $35,000" from the MILLIONS collected for his work for Freddie Mack??? And he WASN'T a lobyist, and he DOESN'T have a $500,000 line of credit at Tiffany, and DIDN'T commit adultery TWICE (that we know about) and he ... will the list keeps going now doesn't it. Is anyone surprised that this failure of a human being is slipping in the pols?
Jesus Creich on a Panzer. 35 miserly Ks, why did he even bother doing that. For years?
Open big now, it's going to be hard to swallow but if at first it doesn't work try harder.
From the bill clinton "what does is mean" school of politics,comes "how to turn $350K into $35K by careful choice of words"...
On paper it was 35,000, what about the secret under the table milliom dollar envelopes(tax free)? HUH?
Alan Grobb....there was an article a few days ago about how the country was entering a drug crisis....we have a shortage of really beneficial drugs like Ridillin...of course you would know that by now....
Same ol' Newt, Shift, Hide, Deny,
Romney? Erase, remove, shift, hide, deny
Perry? Beavis and Butthead rings a bell
Bachmann? Can she even find DC on a map??
Paul? His record speaks for itself and is the exact opposite of his words
At this point Republican voters should be moving in droves to vote for,,,,,,,Obama
So much concern over Newt making some money at Fannie. Where was your disgust when Barney Frank was suppose to be watchoing fannie? Under Barneys watch, Fannie got crushed because of obcenely large positions and yet, you libs have no problems with that. What a bunch of political hacks. 35K a year is a lot? LOSERS!!!!
Barney Frank tried for years to reign in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae with proposed bills that increased oversight on these institutions. Most ofd those were killed due to Republican opposition. Most famous was a bill that he sponsored with Republican Mike Oxley in 2005 that died because of opposition from President Bush. The House bill, the 2005 Federal Housing Finance Reform Act, would have created a stronger regulator with new powers to increase capital at Fannie and Freddie, to limit their portfolios and to deal with the possibility of receivership. Mike Oxley has recently made the news with his recollection of the support given to this bill: “All the hand wringing and bedwetting is going on without remembering how the House stepped up on this,” he says. “What did we get from the White House? We got a one-finger salute.”
Quit trying to pin the housing mess on liberals. The housing meltdown was primarily a Republican debacle.
Sorry Newt, but the question here is how much money you made and not how you chose to spent it. We all know you made $1.6 million, we really don't care to know how much of that you spent and how much you got to keep. What we care to know is that you claim to have worked as a "historian consultant" for them. To most of us, it seems kind of odd to have a history professor given advice to a mortgage company. To most of us that means that you are either the highest paid history professor ever, or you a corrupt and crooked politician who is using and bending the rules of a system you know so well for you own financial gain. To most of us the answer is obvious.
It's quite funny how Gingrich wants his opponents to remove their "fundamentally innacurate" ads when factcheck.org lists him as the 2nd most innacurate in speeches and ads.