WASHINGTON — At times visibly annoyed, former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday took the witness stand in federal court to defend the government’s 2008 rescue of American International Group Inc.
Bernanke testified for about three hours, often giving one- or two-word answers to questions from plaintiffs’ lawyer David Boies, and is expected to return to the stand Friday.
Bernanke’s testimony on the ninth day of the trial followed that of Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York when AIG nearly collapsed and former Treasury secretary, and before him, another former Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson.
The class-action lawsuit alleges the rescue package was an unlawful grab of an equity stake, cheating shareholders of $40 billion.
Boies directed the former Fed chairman to review parts of a compilation of Bernanke’s lectures that had been published. Bernanke didn’t appear to enjoy the exercise. In the afternoon, he made no effort to answer questions into a microphone. When asked a question, he would lift his fingers, mutter a one- or two-word response and then cover his mouth again.
