Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, meanwhile, has admitted his staff asked Senator Christopher Dodd to insert a provision in the economic stimulus bill that allowed AIG to hand out the $165 million in bonuses. Geithner made the admission in an interview with CNN.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: “We expressed concern about this specific provision, because we wanted to make sure it was strong enough to survive legal challenge. But we also worked with him to strengthen the overall framework, and his bill has this very important provision we’re relying on now to go back and see if we can recoup payments that were made that there was no legal ability to block.”

The New York Times reports Senator Dodd is drawing outrage from constituents in his home state of Connecticut for his role in the AIG bonuses controversy. Dodd has come under scrutiny for admitting he was asked by the Treasury to include the bonus protection provision in the stimulus bill after initially claiming he didn’t know how it got inserted.