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James Cole answers questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (photo by Channing Turner / Main Justice)

Deputy Attorney General nominee James Cole said Friday his reports on insurance giant American International Group (AIG) will be made available to the Senate panel before it votes on his nomination.

Cole promised the papers would be turned over in written answers to questions posed by Senate Judiciary Committee members after the nominee appeared before the panel last month.

In his responses, released by the Justice Department Friday, Cole also defended his work as the company’s independent monitor.

“Neither of the two consent agreements under which I worked gave me any legal authority to review the effect of credit default swaps on AIG’s financial health,” Cole said in his response to the supplemental questions. “Credit default swaps were unregulated and, therefore, fell outside my court-ordered legal authority.”

A former public corruption prosecutor and longtime friend of Attorney General Eric Holder, Cole worked as an independent consultant for AIG from January 2005 until earlier this year as part of a deferred prosecution agreement between Justice Department and the insurance giant.

GOP senators sought the non-public reports Cole prepared during his time as an independent monitor to AIG. Some critics have said that Cole, who has been picked for a critical DOJ job that requires a kind of radar to detect issues might prove troublesome, should have been more attentive to possible financial misdeeds and highly risky deals.

President Barack Obama nominated Cole to be Deputy Attorney General in May. He would replace acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler, who has held the post since David Ogden stepped down in February.

To read Cole’s full written responses, see here.