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A visibly nervous Henry Paulson, former US Secretary of the Treasury, testified before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to defend his decision to harshly warn Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis that backing out of the merger with Merrill Lynch, was the best thing to save the American economy.

Though the unemployment rate is currently at 9.5% and is expected to rise, Paulson continued to affirm that if Ken Lewis were to invoke a Material Adverse Change Clause (MAC), which would stop the merger, it would have been detrimental to the economy.

In the first two hearings held to discuss the controversial merger, it was concluded that Ken Lewis must have known about the major fourth quarter losses that Merrill Lynch suffered after the shareholders voted to go ahead with the merger, which would explain his attempt to invoke a MAC clause. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) asked how Paulson could shoot down the MAC clause (a legal action) and ignore the possible illegal action of Lewis’ withholding vital information from Bank of America shareholders.

“Nothing in Mr. Paulson’s testimony today justifies the Government’s decision to ignore evidence that Bank of America withheld information from its shareholders about mounting losses at Merrill Lynch before the crucial shareholder vote on December 5-- a potentially illegal action,” said Kucinich in his opening statements.

In response, all Paulson said was that he simply did not see any illegal actions.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said that there is a “clear pattern of deception and intimidation” in terms of the relationships between Lewis, Paulson, the merger and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke.

“People need to see this situation because it sheds light on where we are headed...it is important we see what happens when you give this kind of involvement to the federal government,” said Jordan.

It was revealed during the hearing that Paulson did in fact share information about the merger with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, Christopher Cox and FDIC Chairman Shelia Bair. In his closing statements, Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) said that he will invite them to testify on their involvement with this merger after the August recess.