Department of Justice Special Attorney Ed Martin was spotted Friday in Brooklyn inspecting New York Attorney General Tish James’ multi-family property, which is at the center of a federal mortgage fraud investigation.
Martin, wearing a beige trench coat, visited the Clinton Hill brownstone just one week after being appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead parallel mortgage fraud probes into James and California Sen. Adam Schiff, The New York Post reported.
Grand juries in Virginia and Maryland are currently weighing criminal indictments for James and Schiff over allegations that both falsified property records to secure favorable loan terms.
James’ Brooklyn property at 296 Lafayette Avenue is listed as a five-unit dwelling, but investigators allege she misrepresented the building as a four-unit property on mortgage applications, building permits, and filings for government aid.
The alleged misclassification would have allowed James to qualify for loans with lower down payments and better interest rates through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which limit financing programs to properties with four or fewer units.
When Martin visited Friday afternoon, the property had one doorbell at the main entrance and four additional doorbells at a side entrance labeled “1 Floor,” “2 Floor,” “3A,” and “3B.”
A neighbor confronted Martin and a colleague, demanding to know why they were there.
“Tell me why you’re here,” she said. “We know who lives here . . . You’re not here about the houses. You’re here because of who lives here. It’s my neighborhood. It’s my block. I have a right to know what you guys are doing.”
“I’m just happy to be on a block looking at houses . . . I’m just looking at houses, interesting houses. It’s an important house,” Martin replied.
“It’s not,” the neighbor shot back. “It’s just like every other tract house on this block that was built by developers.”
“They’re beautiful, beautiful neighborhood,” Martin responded before walking away.
The probe into James’ real estate began in April when Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte referred the case to the DOJ.
Pulte alleged James falsified mortgage records by claiming a Norfolk, Virginia, property she bought in 2023 would serve as her “principal residence” while she was serving as New York’s attorney general, and that her Brooklyn home was a second residence.
The case also includes allegations that James and her father signed mortgage papers listing themselves as “husband and wife” to meet lender requirements.
“Bill Pulte and his FHFA team got this started with his criminal referral,” Martin said last week. “And as Tish James and Adam Schiff always say: ‘Nobody is above the law.’”
Special attorneys are empowered to conduct criminal proceedings, including grand jury investigations and prosecutions, in sensitive cases and can operate outside the district where the case is based.
Grand juries in Virginia and Maryland are considering criminal indictments against New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Senator Adam Schiff on claims that they faked property records to achieve preferential loan conditions.
“Attorney General Bondi and President Trump have given me a very serious mission. I am committed to going where the facts take me. For months DOJ and the FBI have been working on these two cases, it is my job to stick the landing,” said Martin, the former acting US Attorney for Washington, DC.
Both James and Schiff have denied any misconduct.
“The allegations against Senator Schiff are transparently false, stale, and long debunked. Now Ed Martin, the most brazenly partisan and politically compromised person possible for the task, has been picked to investigate a political adversary. The bias here is glaring. Any supposed investigation led by him would be the very definition of weaponization of the justice process,” said former US Attorney Preet Bharara, who is representing Schiff in the case.
The post Investigator Visits Letitia James’ Brooklyn Home Amid Mortgage Fraud Probe appeared first on Conservative Brief.
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Author: Carmine Sabia
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