Bailout watchdog looking at Bank of America deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The watchdog for the U.S. government's bank bailout said on Thursday he was looking into reports that Bank of America faced pressure to minimize public disclosure about last year's takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co.

Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), was asked at a Joint Economic Committee hearing about a Wall Street Journal report saying Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis testified that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told him not to discuss the deal publicly.

"Yes, we are looking into that," Barofsky said, but urged lawmakers "not to make too many assumptions" about what Bernanke or Paulson said because the facts might not be "as crystal clear as presented in that article."

(Reporting by Glenn Somerville)