Lawyer says that White House threatened to use the White House press corps to destroy company's reputation.

Jake Tapper at ABC News reports that "White House Denies Charge By Attorney that Administration Threatened to Destroy Investment Firm's Reputation." Tapper says that

A leading bankruptcy attorney representing hedge funds and money managers told
ABC News Saturday that Steve Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's
Auto Industry Task Force, threatened one of the firms, an investment bank, that
if it continued to oppose the administration's Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the
White House would use the White House press corps to destroy its reputation.

The White House denied the story. What do the surrounding circumstances suggest as to who is more likely to be telling the truth, the White House or Thomas Lauria, the attorney for some of the creditors.

First, the threat of using the White House press corps to destroy the reputation of the creditor shocks on several levels. It suggests that the White House believes that the press corps will do its bidding even in attacking a business attempting to protect its economic interest. The White House certainly has sufficient evidence that the mainstream media will do its bidding based on its conduct during the campaign and the first 100 days.

It also indicates a willingness of the White House to destroy a private company simply for opposing a program pushed by the administration. The company simply attempted to assert its rights as a secured creditor under bankruptcy law. Tapper quoted Lauria as saying that his clients "are mainly fiduciaries for pension plans, college endowments, retirement plans and credit unions who invested in low yield supposedly very secure first lien debt" with Chrysler."

President Obama previously said that "a group of investment firms and hedge funds decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout. They were hoping that everybody else would make sacrifices, and they would have to make none." In fact, according to Lauria, the secured creditors were willing to accept substantially less than what was owed them, but not as little as the White House wanted.

Obama said, "I don't stand with those who held out when everybody else is making sacrifices." It seems that Obama himself has already laid the predicate for the White House press corps to attack the company. The only defense the White House spokesperson could offer was to deny that it occurred and "there's obviously no evidence to suggest that this happened in any way."

I'm sorry, but you make the claim that the other side can't prove something when you did what was alleged and hope there are no smoking guns that prove otherwise. In fact, Mr. Lauria seems far more credible and his statements more believable than the White House.