Gingrich says urging Freddie Mac to release contract

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

Republican presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. AP photo

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday his lawyers were discussing the release of his consulting contract with mortgage giant Freddie Mac, a prime target of attacks by his Republican presidential rivals.

"I think it would be very helpful, and our attorneys are talking with the company," Gingrich said on ABC's Good Morning America.

"You know I left the company so, it's their decision and Nancy Desmond, the president of the company, has to make the decision. But I'd be very comfortable releasing them," he told host George Stephanopoulos.

Since losing to Gingrich in Saturday's primary in South Carolina, Republican rival Mitt Romney has stepped up attacks on the former House speaker as a Washington lobbyist who reaped 1.6 million dollars over nine years in consulting fees from Freddie Mac.

Gingrich has said he advised the mortgage giant as a "historian." Romney himself has come under fire for not make public tax returns detailing his wealth and how much he paid in taxes on a fortune made as a venture capitalist.