In what could be seen as an ironic twist of fate, New York Attorney General Letitia James has been hit with claims that she falsified statements related to mortgage applications to get preferential rates. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte sent a damning missive to US AG Pam Bondi that should be the biggest news story of the day. And yet, the Fourth Estate is entirely silent on the potential criminal charges.
A Trio of Accusations
The FHFA missive details three credible claims against AG James. The first is that she “falsified records” to get loans for a property in Virginia, stating that it was her “principal residence” in 2023 – while serving as a New York State prosecutor. The letter says:
“Ms. James was the sitting Attorney General of New York and is required by law to have her primary residence in the state of New York — even though her mortgage applications list her intent to have the Norfolk, VA, property as her primary home.
“It appears Ms. James’ property and mortgage-related misrepresentations may have continued to her recent 2023 Norfolk, VA property purchase in order to secure a lower interest rate and more favorable loan terms.”
It gets worse.
In 2021, Ms. James apparently purchased a five-dwelling property in Brooklyn. According to Pulte, she “consistently misrepresented the same property as only having four units in both building permit applications and numerous mortgage documents and applications.”
Finally, Pulte claims that in 1983 and 2000, James listed her father as a co-signer on property documents – but claimed they were husband and wife.
Each of these claims resulted in preferential rates for her burgeoning property empire, Pulte alleges.
C’mon Man!
For those with memories that stretch back to 2023, then-candidate Donald Trump was hauled before a Manhattan court on charges that he had overseen dubious practices in a strikingly similar manner. He was ultimately ordered to pay more than $450 million in fines.
In her 2022 initial statement against Trump, AG James wrote:
“With the help of his children and senior executives at the Trump Organization, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system. In fact, the very foundation of his purported net worth is rooted in incredible fraud and illegality.
“Mr. Trump thought he could get away with the art of the steal, but today, that conduct ends. There are not two sets of laws for people in this country; we must hold former presidents to the same standards as everyday Americans. I will continue to ensure that no one is able to evade the law, because no one is above it.”
“No one is above” the law? These words may come back to haunt Ms. James.
Constitutional scholar Professor Jonathan Turley said on Fox News, "This is a person who prosecuted Trump for everything short of ripping a label off a mattress, and among the charges that were brought in New York, in just the civil but the criminal case, was making false or misleading statements to financial institutions. ... As for James, if we apply the Letitia James standard that she created, there'd be little question here. This seems pretty straightforward."
While this is not yet a full-fledged probe, one might assume this story was worthy of at least some news coverage.
Crickets for James
AG James’ day in court may be on the horizon, and such an epic display of potential irony would, in normal times, be a hot topic for the Fourth Estate. However, perusing the digital homepages of left-leaning media reveals nothing but silence.
As of Wednesday morning, April 16, The New York Times, ABC, Politico, and The Washington Post fail to mention James and her troubles. Indeed, a further search of Democrat-friendly outlets reveals very little in the way of curiosity. Much like the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, it seems that the legacy media is closing ranks to protect a favored child.
But this is not 2020, and if history is any guide, a backlash to selective reporting will almost certainly be due.
