The U.S. Treasury says confidential information it got in the bailout of General Motors Co. should stay secret, otherwise at-risk companies needing government help in the future might not be willing to share data, Bloomberg News reported today. The Center for Auto Safety, now researching GM’s ignition-switch defects, sued in 2011 to gain access to information the government obtained before investing $49.5 billion in the automaker. It received more than 50,000 documents and wants additional records on the U.S. role in a judge’s ban on lawsuits over older GM cars. The Treasury asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit. “Disclosure of the disputed information would also impair Treasury’s ability to obtain necessary information from companies in the future,” the U.S. said in an Oct. 29 filing in Washington federal court. “Treasury’s ability to act as a lender would be hampered.”
