Interviews and Mentions
“If you believe Trump is using [Department of Justice] attorneys to prosecute his enemies and further his political interests, you should find it equally troubling that Tish [James] is doing exactly the same thing,” Wiesenfeld wrote.
The hypocrisy was not lost on Sam Antar, a forensic accountant who uncovered mortgage fraud allegedly committed by James for which she was indicted by the Trump DOJ in controversial litigation that is still ongoing.
Antar, who was convicted of securities fraud in the 1980s before turning over a new leaf as an SEC whistleblower, was maligned in court by James’ lawyer Abbe Lowell as a “right-wing ‘investigator’ [and] fringe blogger” aiding Trump efforts to weaponize the DOJ by targeting James as “retribution.”
But despite the political tit for tat, Antar, 69, says he discovered James’ mortgage documents by chance when he was looking into her exorbitant expense claims at Martha’s Vineyard.
“Nobody directs me,” he says. “I’m a Democrat, and I’ve been doing this forensic accounting for 20 years. I don’t even like Trump.
“This was a legitimate case. [James’] fingerprints were all over documents for 30 years in black and white . . . Deeds. Mortgages. Loan applications. Tax records. Her own filings.”
Now one of James’ own prosecutors alleges that her office started with a target and went looking for a crime.
“That’s called projecting,” says Antar.
It’s also deeply unethical, if not illegal.
Regardless of what you think of the president, it’s undeniable that the AG’s Trump derangement has damaged New York, and she does not deserve another term.