Trump vs. Schiff: Armenian-friendly senator could face 30 years in prison Article in the New York Post

The American newspaper The New York Post has published an article criticising pro-Armenian Senator Adam Schiff. Caliber.Az presents the piece's most telling parts.

For all his Trump-deranged bravado, Democrat Senator Adam Schiff, the notorious Russia-hoaxer, looked like a frightened rabbit caught in the spotlight Sunday morning when he appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to deny the mortgage fraud scandal that has embroiled him.

He should be nervous.

A grand jury in Maryland is weighing criminal indictments for Schiff over alleged mortgage fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud and false statements to financial institutions that were uncovered by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, claiming he certified both a Maryland property and a California condominium as his primary residence for tax and mortgage purposes.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and at least two other unnamed people are facing similar allegations, which carry potential jail terms up to 30 years.

“It’s patently false and the president knows it,” blustered Schiff, claiming FHFA head Bill Pulte was “essentially doing the president’s bidding against me, against Letitia James [and] against this person on the Federal Reserve.

However, Schiff’s attempts to dismiss the allegations against him as “retribution” or part of a campaign of “lawfare” by an “authoritarian” president are not only hilariously hypocritical but miss an important point.

“A serious crime”

Mortgage fraud is a serious matter that affects us all.

Banks offer significantly better rates and require smaller down payments for primary residences because they deem them lower risk than investment properties since homeowners are less likely to default on the home they live in.

If enough people falsely claim investment properties as their primary residence, lenders inadvertently carry higher risks that could see the collapse of the entire financial system, as happened in the 2008 global financial crisis, when widespread fraud and inadequate regulation led to a wave of defaults.

It’s no small crime, and those Trump critics who pretend it is trivial and commonplace have short memories and low ethics.

Pulte, a Trump appointee with deep expertise in housing finance, is quite properly focused on cleaning up the industry.

“Mortgage fraud is a serious crime,” Pulte told me, promising it will “be nearly eliminated after we’re done.”

Pulte notes that the mortgage fraud case he referred to the DOJ against Lisa Cook is especially significant because “the very person entrusted with setting interest rates should never manipulate them for personal gain.”

No mercy from Don

The fact is that if high-profile Democrats have been dumb enough or crooked enough or arrogant enough to flout the law, they can hardly expect to find mercy from Trump who, after all, suffered through 91 felony indictments from three Democrat prosecutors, aimed at throwing him in jail and off the ballot, not to mention James’ $500 million civil suit aimed at destroying his company, an absurd penalty which a New York appeals court threw out last week.

All of this was the culmination of a relentless campaign of lies and discrediting, including “Russiagate” and two impeachments.

Did Trump’s antagonists never expect a boomerang? If they’ve done nothing wrong, they will be exonerated. But, as they like to say: “No one is above the law.”