Riegle Says Media Misreports Probe of Lincoln Savings

Sen. Donald Riegle (D-Mich.) defended his involvement with Lincoln Savings & Loan Assn. on Wednesday and accused the news media of ignoring evidence that he did not influence regulators to delay closing the failed thrift.

“A lot of the press stories have been based on the false notion that senators or others in Congress had somehow influenced the process, and that’s not true,” Riegle said.

Congressional testimony that Riegle said clears him and four other senators of wrongdoing has been played down in news accounts because “it basically blows away the story.”

“I resent it. I think it’s unfair,” he said.

Riegle, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has said little publicly about his role in the battle between federal regulators and Lincoln, which the government seized in April.

The Senate Ethics Committee has hired an outside lawyer to examine allegations that five senators improperly intervened with regulators on Lincoln’s behalf. The senators are Riegle, Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), John Glenn (D-Ohio) and Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.)