I thought the Obami were going to hold Wall Street's feet to the fire

First Federal Bank, aka: Citigroup is stonewalling on a major discrepancy in its financial statement.  It seems it doesn't like what a particular top level analyst is saying about its accounting practices so it is denying him access.  Kevin Williamson wonders if the all time top recipient of Citi campaign contributions could help set a date.  I publish Mr. Williamson's post in its entirety.  H/T NRO

You know that bank we own? No, not that one, this one. There seems to be some trouble:

An all-out war has broken out between Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and a prominent securities analyst who is saying that the big bank may be cooking the books by inflating its earnings through an accounting gimmick, FOX Business Network has learned.

The analyst, Mike Mayo, of the securities firm CLSA, has been telling investors that Citigroup(C: 3.70 ,+0.04 ,+0.96%) should take a writedown, or a loss on some $50 billion of “deferred-tax assets,” or DTAs. That is a tax credit the firm has on its financial statement that Mayo says is inflating profits at the big bank by as much as $10 billion.
For that critique, Mayo has been denied one-on-one meetings with top players of the firm, including CEO Vikram Pandit, Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach, and any other member of management, while other analysts enjoy full access to the bank’s top executives, FBN has learned.
In fact, Mayo hasn’t had a meeting with Pandit or anyone in Citigroup management since around the time of the financial crisis, in the fall of 2008, when Citigroup was on the verge of extinction and needed an unprecedented series of government bailouts to survive.

You know who ought to be able to get a meeting with Vikram Pandit? Tim Geithner. And if not Tiny Tim, then his boss, Barack Obama, who was the top recipient of Citigroup campaign contributions in the last election cycle, having taken in more than $730,000. You know who else might be able to get a meeting? New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who is the biggest recipient of Citigroup money in this election cycle so far.

Obama and Gillibrand should know: If you’re going to bail out the bank and take the bank’s money, then when it’s time for due diligence, you need to make sure that somebody steps up.