weeks ago, now we learned that not only have they been investigating the united states, the united states justice department has been investigating them. that s right, megyn. this has been an open civil investigation into s&p that sources close to the matter tells fox business started before the downgrade. but what s interesting and striking here, megyn, is the fact that henry waxman, a democrat in congress, at the house reform and oversight government committee launched a probe and a hearing into s&p and the other ratings agency back in the fall of 2008, so this has been outstanding, this so-called probe. by the way, the sec megyn: and the problem was s&p graded these mortgage securities aaa, said their great, awesome, and a lot of people relying on that, the theory goes, then went out and invested in them and then it collapsed. that s why the investigation is ongoing. essentially that the watchdogs didn t bark and s&p being one of those watchdog, in other words, s&p, moody s, g
growth from rating these subprime securities aaa when they were really toxic securities and junk, in other words, payments were not coming in, so s&p was called in before henry waxman s committee where we saw e-mails at the time revealed in the fall 2008 statements from s&p and the other rating agencies such as we have it was structured by a cow, we would rate it, things such as, you know, where is where are the ratings agencies going to be on this after this the ratings go out. megyn: structured by cows and we would rate it and let s hope we re wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters. the point being that this was known in the fall of 2008. so why did it take three years for all of the sudden the department of justice to come out and say yes, we do have an ongoing civil investigation into s&p? the timing is striking. by the way megyn: by the way, people are questioning the fact of whether the investigation going on was leaked now because they want to sa