Dodd talks to News Channel 8 about loan

Hartford (WTNH) - News Channel 8 Investigator Alan Cohn sat down with Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd and his wife to talk about their mortgage controversy and plans to refinance their Haddam and Washington, D.C. homes.

The senator apologized for those who accuse him of impropriety.

"No question I think people are wondering are you hiding something, so I apologize," Dodd said.

After months of promising to release his mortgage documents amid scrutiny over how and why Dodd and his wife Jackie wound up on a VIP list for the Countrywide Home Loan mortgage company, the couple finally did. They let reporters examine the paperwork at the senator's Hartford Office and released a report commissioned by the family's attorney.

Dodd defended the accusations that he received preferential treatment from the company, which itself is the subject of investigation in connection to the mortgage meltdown.

"We got market rates, market terms, the same rate available to people in similar situations," Dodd said.

The report Dodd commissioned includes ads for similar mortgage deals.

The Senate Ethics Committee continues to examine the matter. But Dodd has been hammered over his delays in releasing his mortgage documents concerning the refinancing up his homes. The deal was primarily negotiated by his wife.

"We thought it was our high quality of credit and it had nothing to do with my husband being senator," Jackie Clegg Dodd said.

The Dodds are now severing all ties with Countrywide, refinancing their mortgage yet again. This time they are having a third party do the negotiations to avoid appearance of any conflict for Dodd who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.