JP Morgan did two huge favors for the federal government during the 2008 credit crisis. It took $25 billion in TARP money it didn’t need—which it paid back the minute the government gave it permission to pay it back—and it acquired Bear Stearns. The Bear deal was struck over a weekend, at, again, the government’s behest, and with virtually no time for due diligence.

In January President Obama announced the creation of a mortgage fraud task force to pursue legal cases against the perps who “brought down the system”—ex any sitting politicians of course. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the head of said task force, announced Monday that he’s bringing suit against JP Morgan for “systemic” mortgage-securities-related fraud allegedly committed by Bear Stearns before it was acquired by JP Morgan. Schneiderman made it abundantly clear that a message must be sent to the American people that those who caused the crisis (ex any sitting politicians of course) will be held accountable

While it is utterly unconscionable that no ‘individual’ heads have rolled [in court] over the egregious mismanagement, greed, neglect and outright fraud at every level and with every player of the mortgage process—given the circumstances, the timing, and their bringing civil charges against JPM, as opposed to criminal charges against any ex-Bear execs, the only message the American people need to get, is that this suit is entirely politically motivated—no doubt JP Morgan (2008 beneficence notwithstanding ) is a most attractive [political] target given its recent controversial multi-billion dollar trading loss.

By the way, don’t think for a minute that JP Morgan helped the government out of the goodness of Jamie Dimon’s heart. I suspect, strongly, that it was either a case of paying back, or paying in advance (both actually) for political favor. Expect this case to dry up sometime post-election…