Why are all these leading Democrats suddenly facing mortgage fraud charges? Gues

[Texacon]

https://democraticunderground.com/100220588345


Funny, they see this as something bad that Trump did, but not one of them is saying "hey, we prosecuted Trump for this, our side shouldn't get away with it either."

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (127,659 posts)

Tue Aug 26, 2025, 01:51 PM
12
Recommend

Why are all these leading Democrats suddenly facing mortgage fraud charges? Guess who's behind it
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 (6,531 posts)

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

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)
Tue Aug 26, 2025, 02:00 PM

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

Ocelot II (126,714 posts)
2. Probably because it's a pretty easy claim to stick someone with at the outset.

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)
Tue Aug 26, 2025, 02:07 PM

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.

I think this DUmmie is overlooking the obvious.  Sure, they may have inflated wages or assets, but from what I've seen in these cases these people claimed they were going to live in the home!

That, is not a mistake.  THAT is a LIE!  You do that so you can get a lower down payment and better interest rates.  It is deliberate and very easy to prove.

Prairie Gates (5,974 posts)

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

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)
Tue Aug 26, 2025, 02:12 PM

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.

If you cheered on the prosecution of Trump during his trial, you should man up and get behind these prosecutions.  If you don't, you're admitting it was lawfare.

KC

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

https://x.com/tomselliott/status/1960322468884725784

A very incomplete list of prominent Republicans prosecuted during the Biden Admin:

Donald Trump (4 separate jurisdictions)
Rudy Giuliani
Mark Meadows
John Eastman
Sidney Powell
George Santos
Jeff Fortenberry
Steve Bannon
Peter Navarro
Kenneth Chesebro
Jenna Ellis
Jeffrey Clark
Boris Epshteyn
Christina Bobb
Mike Roman

[Texacon]

https://x.com/tomselliott/status/1960322468884725784

Roger Stone most definitely needs to be on that list.  When you bring in a SWAT team and some Navy SEALS to take down an elderly man, that needs to be remembered.  (Yes, I know they weren't SEALs, but they had the house surrounded and CNN was told there was going to be a big show.)

KC

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Roger Stone most definitely needs to be on that list.  When you bring in a SWAT team and some Navy SEALS to take down an elderly man,

For a process crime over an alleged cover-up of an accusation known to be false.

I want to see the ****ers watching their peers walked off one by one until they are fleeing in the middle of the night to countries without extradition.

[SVPete]

Trump's case: Trump applied for a loan; in that loan application was an estimate of the value of assets that would be collateral; the bank did their own appraisal of the value of those assets; based on that appraisal, the bank made the loan; Trump repaid the loan; the bank is willing to do business with Trump again.

James's, Schifftyroo's, and Cook's alleged fraud: James, Schifftyroo, and Cook, individually and unrelatedly, applied for home loans; in the loan applications, James, Schifftyroo, and Cook claimed, under penalty of perjury, homes were their primary residences which were not their primary residences; as a result of those claims, James, Schifftyroo, and Cook got better loan terms than they would have gotten for secondary residences or rental properties.

If I did what James, Schifftyroo, and Cook are alleged to have done, I would do prison time or pay a very large fine or both. If found guilty, James, Schifftyroo, and Cook should receive the maximums of the same consequences an ordinary person would, as should any pol, D or R, convicted of similar fraud.

[DUmpDiver]

Simple answer: They all lied to get better mortgage rates assuming nobody would ever doublecheck or catch them.

I hope the new "primary residence" for all of them is The Gray Bar Hotel.