Thank You, Tish James

By Rich Lowry

Thursday, April 17, 2025

 

What did they say about Caesar’s wife?

 

It should doubly apply to prosecutors who nail someone to the wall for dishonest claims regarding real estate transactions, but might be tempted to engage themselves in dishonest claims regarding real estate transactions.

 

Tish James, the New York attorney general who sheathed her politicized pursuit of Donald Trump in thunderously righteous terms, apparently does not believe she has to be above suspicion or reproach.

 

According to a new criminal referral from the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, James made false statements in the course of getting housing loans over the years.

 

As you might recall, James undertook a civil case against Trump for the same type of offense — although obviously on a much larger scale — and proceeded to get a judgment against him, obtain potentially ruinous damages, threaten to foreclose on his properties, and gloat about it all along the way.

 

We may never know if James thought at any point while she tried to destroy Donald Trump over his dubious representations to lenders, “Maybe I shouldn’t have said the property I bought in Norfolk, Virginia, would be my primary residence when it wasn’t,” or, “Gosh, I wish I hadn’t said that the five-unit property I purchased in Brooklyn had only four units.”

 

This is what the Federal Housing Finance Agency referral alleges. Of course, we should hear from James about the matter and wait to get all the facts, but the referral notes that her statements would have secured more favorable loan terms — exactly what she slammed Trump for.

 

This is so on the nose it could have been a plot twist in a Tom Wolfe novel.

 

In due time, we will probably hear James rehearse all the defenses that she showered with contempt when Trump made them.

 

No one was harmed.

 

Everyone does it.

 

Someone else filled out the forms.

 

The case against me is political.

 

In all likelihood, James will go from insisting that the integrity of the system depends on the strict accuracy of such filings to suggesting that everyone expects a little fudging here and there and, besides, how could a simple country lawyer like herself be expected to keep up with all the nuances involved?

 

If nothing else, the hypocrisy will be highly enjoyable.

 

Now, I’m not a fan of retaliatory lawfare, and it seems likely that this information emerged because someone was very motivated to flyspeck her background for potential wrongdoing.

 

If James made fraudulent claims, though, she’s set a standard that would involve her being pursued to the ends of the Earth over them. It’s not just that she targeted Trump, but she distorted a consumer protection law to do it. How can she complain if the DOJ takes a maximalist approach to her alleged offenses?

 

When Tish James intoned that no one is above the law, she never made an exception for herself, which, in retrospect, may have been a simple lack of foresight.