Why are all these leading Democrats suddenly facing mortgage fraud charges? Guess who's behind it

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Michael Hiltzik

Like the White Queen in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," I am capable of believing as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

But my credulity is strained past the breaking point by the charges of federal mortgage fraud laid against three leading adversaries of Donald Trump—Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, and (most recently) Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, whom Trump claimed to fire for cause Monday.

-snip-

What gets me, and should get you, is the flimsiness of these accusations despite how loudly they've been bruited about on the MAGA right as though they're signals of profound moral turpitude on the part of the targets, and how they all originated in the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is led by Trump acolyte and sycophant William J. Pulte, in private life a big homebuilder.

The important question, in the view of Adam Levitin of Georgetown Law, is who is driving these investigations and levying these accusations, and whether they reflect an "enemies list" Pulte has compiled on Donald Trump's behalf. I asked the FHFA to respond to Levitin's questions but received no response.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/hiltzik-why-leading-democrats-suddenly-100000706.html

[Redleg]

1. And irony of ironies, Trump has been found guilty/liable for both criminal and civil fraud

both of which he said were unfair and rigged proceedings and rulings. This orange monster really has some fucking gall.

[Sneederbunk]

4. This makes him an expert witness.

[Redleg]

5. LOL. Yes, Trump does have expertise at committing crimes.

And then whining about the rulings after a fair trial.

[Ocelot II]

2. Probably because it's a pretty easy claim to stick someone with at the outset.

Almost everybody has a mortgage, and the people who are Trump's likely targets probably have expensive homes and maybe second homes or other real property as well. If you misstate your financial circumstances - income, assets, debts, etc., when applying for a mortgage, you can be charged with mortgage fraud if you did it intentionally for the purpose of obtaining a mortgage you wouldn't qualify for otherwise. But it's really easy to go sifting through the financial records of politicians and other public figures because a lot of that information is readily available, and make a claim that the person's assets weren't as valuable as they'd claimed, or they didn't actually make that much money, and now the burden is on the accused person to prove either that the records are accurate or that there was an inadvertent error, not an intent to misstate the numbers. It's just harassment, obviously. And didn't Trump do exactly the same thing? He overstated his assets to get loans and understated them for insurance purposes. Every accusation is a confession with this crowd.

[enid602]

7. Trump

Didn’t Trump himself have a history of inflating the value of his assets to support bank loan applications? And didn’t he simultaneously undervalue assets to support lower property taxes?

[Ocelot II]

8. Exactly - Like I said, every accusation is a confession.

[Prairie Gates]

3. Another reason to get transparency is that they've probably run these queries on hundreds

of Trump enemies where not even the slightest hint of impropriety came up. It would be interesting to see which public figures have had some mortgage fraud query run against their record.

Maybe some enterprising reporter could get on this if they detached their lips from Trump's ass for two-tree days.

[UTUSN]

6. K&R

[Torchlight]

9. To soften the final blow for TX AG Ken Paxton

Muddy the waters and throw accusations prior to the critical discovery. Paxton's feeling the willies these days, and Cornyn, throwing the shots, can't be blamed for because he's part of the good old boy network. So they pretend a Dem is doing it, make a lot of noise. People tune out and turn off and when the real thing happens, we shrug our shoulders with all the drama of a hipster, and say 'been there done that'

GOP SOP in the here and now. Every effin time.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Fishing expedition leading to selective prosecution. . . nt

[Jack Valentino]

11. Probably from the guy who was CONVICTED in New York, for

falsifying his financial standing.....................................

[BradBo]

12. There desperate to justify the racist firing. Cook is black.