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Brooklyn pol’s cozy little hideaway loan

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WASHINGTON — Brooklyn Rep. Ed Towns excluded from a subpoena he issued the fact that he and other members of Congress received special home loans from a mortgage lender he was investigating as chairman of a House oversight committee, sources said yesterday.

The 15-term Democrat issued the subpoena to the former Countrywide Financial Corp. three years ago, demanding files on loans that it had made — including ones that went through a VIP unit to House members.

But Towns later narrowed the request to weed out information that would have identified him, other House members and some staffers who received discounted Countrywide loans, according to House records and sources.

The current chairman of the panel, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) confirmed the switcheroo and accused Towns and the Democrats of a coverup.

“This a cautionary tale about how opponents of government accountability use terms like smear, partisan and unnecessary to attack an investigation, when what they really want is to continue a coverup,” Issa said yesterday.

It was Issa who issued a more sweeping subpoena when he took over the committee last year that exposed Towns and the others.

The committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), tried to block the Issa subpoena as unnecessary at the time, and Democrats accused Issa of operating a smear campaign against Towns.

Issa issued a report last month that showed Towns received two loans through the VIP unit of the company that Issa said was intent on currying favor on Capitol Hill.

Bank of America, which bought Countrywide in 2008, acknowledged yesterday that Towns altered his original subpoena terms.

“The committee provided the bank with specific instructions and modifications regarding the scope of the subpoena and the bank followed and fulfilled all instruction and fully complied with the subpoena as modified by the committee,” the bank said in a statement.

For his part, Towns denied that he received special treatment from Countrywide for a $183,000 second home in Lutz, Fla., in the summer of 2003 at a rate of 4.5 percent. A month later, he received a $194,500 loan for his Brooklyn home.

But documents showed that Countrywide officials clearly identified Towns as a congressman and “important customer.” Although the Issa report did not say how much Towns saved, it indicated that the VIP loans had an interest rate 0.5 percent lower than those to the general public.

Towns declined a request for an interview yesterday. He is retiring at the end of the year.