The DOJ just can’t seem to find any evidence:
Top Trump administration officials are pressuring federal prosecutors in Virginia to bring charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud, despite investigators so far failing to find sufficient evidence supporting such charges, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
After a five-month investigation and interviews with more than a dozen witnesses, federal prosecutors have so far uncovered no clear evidence that James knowingly made false statements to a financial institution to secure favorable terms on a mortgage for her Virginia home, according to multiple sources briefed on the investigation.
Trump himself has pressured the Department of Justice leadership to investigate James more aggressively, and two officials — Ed Martin, the head of the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, and Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — have pushed the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to seek an indictment of James.
When federal prosecutors recently declined to indict James, Pulte encouraged Trump to fire Erik Siebert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and replace him with a prosecutor who would be willing to bring charges against James, sources said.
They don’t have a case:That’s the kind of stuff that led Nixon to resign and outraged the entire country. With Trump it’s just another Wednesday.
They don’t have a case:
Pulte and Martin have argued that James committed mortgage fraud because one of the documents related to a 2023 home purchased by James falsely indicated the property would be her primary residence. However, investigators have so far determined that the document — a limited power of attorney form used by James’ niece to sign documents on her behalf when James closed on the home — was never considered by the loan officers who approved the mortgage, sources said.
Lawyers drafted the document itself for a third-party closing company based on a template that was never corrected, sources said, and every other document in James’ loan file for the mortgage accurately stated that she would not reside at the home.
Bill Pulte is a huge problem for Trump. This mortgage fraud gambit is cute but legally bullshit. Recall that he was recently challenged to a fight by Scott Bessent for “making him look bad.” I wonder if this might be the reason:
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once agreed to occupy two different houses as his “principal residence” at the same time, mortgage documents show — the same kind of contradictory pledges that President Donald Trump has been using to try to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
Bessent’s conflicting agreements obligated him to occupy homes in New York and Massachusetts as his main residence at the same time in 2007. But there’s no sign of any wrongdoing on his part, mortgage experts say. Rather, his case demonstrates that an incongruity in home-loan filings isn’t necessarily proof of fraud.
Other evidence from Bessent’s mortgages shows that his lender, Bank of America Corp., wasn’t relying on the pledges and never expected him to occupy both homes as primary residences.
Trump needs a new hatchet man. Two actually. Martin is a loser too. Beavis and Butthead here don’t seem to have a clue.