Is someone ghost-writing Scott O’Malia’s comments on CFTC rules and guidelines? According to John Kemp of Reuters, who recently wrote a very intriguing piece exploring the transformation of O’Malia’s comments into eight thousand word legal briefs, it’s likely.
During O’Malia’s first two years, his statements were–on average, around 1,240 words, with two footnotes–similar to his colleagues. But since October 2011 the average has jumped to 3,020, with 17 footnotes–including two statements of over 8,000 words and around 50 footnotes. Jill Sommers, for example, another Republican commissioner, limited her comments on the same two occasions to 1,500 words and no footnotes. O’Malia’s statements are also written like detailed legal brief, and without legal training and a small staff Kemp thinks it’s likely someone outside the CFTC is writing them.
O’Malia has emerged Wall Street’s staunchest defender at the CFTC, and his comments are of particular interest, because they have been cited numerous times in Wall Street’s case against CFTC rules in court. As Kemp says, “the question is: who exactly is writing these lengthy statements-cum-briefs and with what purpose?
From the looks of it, one might infer that O’Malia’s statements are opening up CFTC rules to challenge from the inside. The question, again, is who?
Find the full article here.