The Sunday Report: A Tish James Scandal?
Is the NY Attorney General guilty of exactly what she sued Donald Trump for?
Happy Super Bowl Sunday, all! It’s an event that’s becoming a global phenomenon, and this year’s promises to be a good one (our prediction at the end of today’s post…).
But before that, we feel compelled to raise a tiny issue: Is NYS Attorney General Letitia James guilty of exactly what she sued Donald Trump for?
(You’d be smiling too if the banks treated you this well…)
If you recall, James sued Donald Trump for inflating the valuation of his properties while obtaining mortgages. It was — as the lawfare against Trump generally is — an unprecedented case, based on a flimsy premise.
But James knew her audience. A kooky judge, a Trump-hating New York jury, a servile media, all combined to ensure a $355 million judgment against a man who has been in New York real estate his whole life.
James has made the sort of statements regarding Donald Trump that should have disqualified her from bringing any case against him. She literally ran her election campaign on a platform to, “get Trump.”
But now come amazing revelations that appear to show James has been doing exactly what she pursued Trump for. According to dogged research by Sam Antar, a former CPA and well-known presence on X, James appears to have significantly inflated the value of her own properties.
As detailed here, Antar shows that in her financial disclosures James valued a Virginia “investment property” she owns at $100k - $150k. Yet the property apparently carries several mortgages totaling up to $400k — more than twice the property’s declared value.
As Antar puts it,
Standard lending practices typically limit total financing to no more than 80-90% of a property’s value for investment properties. Here, the mortgages potentially exceed 250%….
(Image courtesy whitecollarfraud.com)
How was this financing obtained? Especially when James currently lists no income from this “investment” property?
Properties James owns in Brooklyn are even more contradictory. James has this property as jumping 42% in value in recent years — while the city assessment has it declining to the tune of 7.58% (recall that the disparity between property assessment and the loan taken was at the heart of James’s case against Trump). This property has four separate mortgages on it — putting the property’s mortgage debt at roughly three times its valuation by the city assessor.
When were these mortgages obtained? What representations did James make in obtaining them? Why is the trend of James’s own valuation of her property diametrically opposite the city’s?
(click the image for the link)
Antar has done yeoman’s work in tracking the opacity of James’s travel (and other) expenses, as well as those of other members of NY city and state government (work our mainstream media should be doing).
In light of Letitia James’s unprofessional (and arguably unethical) targeting of Donald Trump, these findings demand answers.
And if you want to here it direct from Sammy… we got hold of him:
We think you’ll agree: AG James has some explaining to do.
Why do I feel she may soon be explaining it at the federal level?
That’s it for today, folks. We’re taking it light, to catch the big game. Here’s hoping for a clean win that the refs don’t decide….
Oh! Almost forgot: Eagles over the Chiefs, 34 - 27.
Alas.
Hang James with all conspirators
I know Sam E. Antar for over 40 years , if he said she perpetrated a financial fraud , you can rest assure she is guilty.
People lie , numbers don’t.