The Washington Post editorial board came out against lawfare this morning… against Letitia James. Curiously, they stealth-edited the title of the editorial. Originally the title was “Letitia James Went After Trump. Now She’s Being Singled Out…” which I saw when I clicked to use the “reader” view of what is now entitled “Donald Trump and ‘Selective’ Prosecution.” They conclude the piece, however it’s titled, this way:
Courts can mitigate the destructiveness of lawfare — but if politicians keep abusing the legal system, maybe not for long.
It’s not “abuse” to notice mortgage fraud. There’s compelling, documentary evidence which Ms. James herself has not been able to explicitly deny (though she’s tried), that shows, pretty conclusively, that she did, in fact, commit mortgage fraud. It’s 1000x more powerful evidence than Ms. James ever had in her case against Mr. Trump.
The Washington Post editorial board didn’t mention any of that. They did concede that the now-thrown-out half-billion dollar judgement against then-candidate Trump was “outrageous.” They even conceded the “novelty” of the case, a.k.a. the never-before-used legal theory she invented out of whole cloth just to get Trump. So there’s that. Baby steps, right? We’ll take what we can get.
In 2018, she [Letitia James] made pursuing Trump part of her campaign. This message resonated in a state Trump had lost two years earlier by 22 percentage points. But it also cast a cloud over her motives as she charged Trump with overstating the value of properties he owned to get better rates on loans and insurance. Aggressive accounting is common in the real estate business, and banks didn’t sue or lose money on the deals.
Those are some pretty bold admissions on their part: that she ran on “getting” Trump, that the accounting practices used in the deal are common, and that none of the parties involved suffered any litigation or losses. If they could “get” Trump on this “novel” legal theory, in which neither of the parties had any complaints (!), then every real estate deal in New York could be gutted and everyone charged. The entire real estate industry in New York could collapse into a morass of litigation. Everyone in New York should hope the appellate process rolls on righteously. That’s how serious this insanity is.
The Thursday decision comes as the Trump administration is launching its own version of show-me-the-man-and-I’ll-show-you-the-crime lawfare. “Mortgage fraud” seems to be the administration’s weapon of choice, and it has referred James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) and Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, for criminal investigation.
Once again, it’s not “show-me-the-man-and-I’ll-show-you-the-crime lawfare” to notice mortgage fraud. Like Letitia James, both Adam Schiff and Ms. Cook have some pretty sketchy paperwork. These things happen. People made bad choices. That Trump noticed isn’t the problem. The problem is the choices these people made, which should absolutely be litigated to exactly the same fairness standard Trump was, as I was assured it was scrupulously fair.
Image from Grok.