TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Under pressure, Newt Gingrich arranged the release of a contract Monday night showing the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. paid his consulting firm a $25,000 monthly retainer fee in 2006, for a total of $300,000.
The agreement calls for "consulting and related services" but makes no mention of lobbying.
Gingrich has likened his work for the federally-backed mortgage giant known as Freddie Mac to that of a historian, and later a strategic adviser. Campaign rival Mitt Romney says he was lobbying.
The work the former House speaker did for Freddie Mac was disclosed long ago, but controversy has flared in the 48 hours since he trounced Romney in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary.
The next primary is set for Jan. 31 in Florida, a state particularly hard hit by the housing crisis of 2008, and one where Gingrich's connections with Freddie Mac may carry a political stigma.
The material was released by the Center for Health Transformation, which Gingrich helped create, and has since sold.
Its disclosure came about two hours before a campaign debate in Tampa, and the timing suggested Gingrich was hoping to blunt any attack Romney might make at the event.
Gingrich has said previously that firms he ran received about $1.6 million from Freddie Mac for consulting services over several years, and he personally pocketed $35,000 a year. Only the contract covering 2006 was released.
Even before the material was made public, Romney's campaign said it wouldn't be satisfied with only the contract or contracts themselves. "Speaker Gingrich should immediately make his Freddie Mac contract and work product available to the public," Gail Gitcho, Romney's communications director, said in a statement.
