Quote:
Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm
you actually believe LJ made a mortgage mistake
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Yes, prove otherwise. Which is why these types of cases are usually not prosecuted. But the telling question is this. Why would a lawyer, the state attorney general risk jail time for a measly savings of $50 dollars a month.
Because that’s what we’re talking about. The chances that the Attorney General would falsify mortgage records on purpose to save $600 dollars a year is simply ludicrous.
Proving mortgage fraud is difficult because mistakes on paperwork are often made and proving that someone lied rather than making a mistake is extremely difficult.
Here is a good write up of the case. I recommend reading the entire article.
https://archive.ph/opyo4
The Mortgage Fraud Case Against Letitia James, Explained
Is mortgage fraud often prosecuted?
No. Banks can call in loans and take civil actions when they uncover misrepresentations, but federal prosecutors rarely bother with criminal charges — especially when the purported ill gains are small. According to an interactive data analyzer for the United States Sentencing Commission, 38 people were sentenced in 2024 for federal mortgage fraud convictions, and most of those cases involved dollar amounts in excess of $550,000.
To convict Ms. James at trial, prosecutors would have to persuade a jury not only that her paperwork contained an error, but also that it was an intentional misrepresentation and not an inadvertent mistake
Earlier allegations of financial fraud by Ms. James related to other properties proved thinner upon closer inspection.
William J. Pulte, a Trump loyalist atop the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has been sifting financial records in search of a basis to make criminal referrals against Mr. Trump’s adversaries. On April 14, he made a referral against Ms. James based on apparent paperwork problems with two other properties, including accusing her of falsely saying she would be the primary resident of a different house in Norfolk that she bought with her niece in 2023.
But two weeks later, her lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell, marshaled a detailed defense. After scouring the paperwork from the 2023 purchase himself, he accused Mr. Pulte of having misleadingly cherry-picked one form that incorrectly said Ms. James would live there while omitting that two others accurately stated that her niece would be its primary resident.
