What is it with corrupt perverts and weirdos getting elected to higher office in New York? Former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman got #MeToo’ed out of his job after beating his mistress with a belt and calling her his “brown slave.” Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer used to stuff a Russian contortionist hooker in a suitcase to sneak her into his condo without the neighbors seeing them. Current Attorney General Letitia James is now embroiled in a new scandal that could result in her going to prison.
And get this—it’s for the same crime that she accused Donald Trump of committing!
Letitia James campaigned for Attorney General on a promise that she was going to “get Trump.” She did just that after winning her election. She filed a civil lawsuit and accused him of using fraud to secure favorable real estate loan terms. For example, James claimed that Mar-a-Lago was only worth $18 million, but Trump “lied” and claimed it was worth much more as collateral.
James somehow managed to secure a $455 million judgment against President Trump, despite the fact that there were no victims in the case. Every Trump Organization loan was paid back with interest, and every bank said they’d be thrilled to do business with Trump again. The judgment will almost certainly be overturned on appeal.
We previously covered a real estate scandal in New York that Letitia James is now embroiled in. When she purchased her first home back in the 1980s (and again when she resold it in 2000), she and her father posed as a husband and wife to secure the loan terms. She pretended to be married to her dad and they signed mortgage documents to that effect.
Here’s the new case that could very well be the end of Letitia James’s career.
Two months before she prosecuted President Trump for real estate “fraud,” James purchased a home in Virginia with a relative of hers named Shamice Thompson-Hairston. As part of that transaction, James signed a Specific Power of Attorney to Thompson-Hairston to make the real estate purchase on her behalf. They bought a modest home in Norfolk, VA, on a loan of $225,000.
On the Specific Power of Attorney document that Letitia James signed her name on, she swore to the following under penalty of perjury:
“I HEREBY DECLARE that I intend to occupy this property as my primary residence.”
She swore that the Virginia home was going to be her primary residence and then filed her case against President Trump two months later. Mortgage rates are lower on primary residences than they are on second homes or investment properties. Did Letitia James lie on that Power of Attorney document to secure a better loan term?
Here’s where it becomes even more of a pickle for Big Tish. Under New York law, state officers are required to live in New York. If James declared the Virginia home to be her primary residence—as she clearly did on the Power of Attorney document—she would have triggered an automatic vacancy in the office of Attorney General.
Letitia James is now in a “Heads you win, tails I lose” situation.
If the Virginia home is in fact her primary residence, then she was legally no longer the Attorney General of New York two months later when she launched her case against Donald Trump. She would have been ineligible to prosecute him at the time. That would render the entire trial, guilty conviction, and $455 million judgment null and void. The state of New York would have to decide whether to even take the case up again, and it would be against a sitting president this time.
However, if the Virginia home is not Letitia James’s primary residence, she may have committed mortgage fraud. Since it would be a multi-state case of real estate fraud, federal wire fraud charges could apply. Those carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
If she lied to secure a better loan term (the exact crime that she prosecuted Trump for), then Letitia James committed mortgage fraud. If she did not lie, and the Virginia home really was her primary residence, then she was no longer the Attorney General of New York when she prosecuted Trump.
Which was it? Maybe US Attorney General Pam Bondi should take a closer look at this situation.
