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Well add the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessant for Donald Trump to the growing list of cabinet members that have the exact same mortgage issue as they're claiming represents fraud when they point the finger at the Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, but then come up with all sorts of excuses when it's called out that they're doing the exact same thing. They check the same boxes, they tried to take out more than one loan, multiple loans, checking the box that it would be their primary residence, perhaps to get a lower interest rate. Who knows the background. But they were very quick, including Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary, to point the finger at Lisa Cook and try to frame her. And now we have the fourth cabinet member in Donald Trump's administration, the Labor Secretary, the Transportation Secretary, the EPA Administrator, and now the Treasury Secretary, who, based on public documents available to everyone, seems to have the same problem or no problem at all if you subscribe to my theory, which is this was never mortgage fraud to begin with. But now they've gone so far as to convince at least one judge, Judge Katz on the Appellate court for the DC Circuit to claim not that it was an alleged allegation of fraud, an apparent mortgage fraud by Lisa Cook. Well, then it's then if that's the case, it's an apparent mortgage fraud by Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary, the Labor Secretary, the the Transportation Secretary, who's married to a Fox anchor, and the EPA administrator. Oh, what a t untangled web weave. I'm Michael Popak, untangling the webs here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal af. So, you know, when you live in a glass house, maybe you shouldn't throw stones or mortgage fraud around. Scott Bessant was very public, went on Fox News recently and said if she's committed this kind of mortgage fraud, Lisa Cook has no place on the Federal Reserve. Very vocal all of a sudden for a guy who was a former hedge fund, hedge fund operator and work for George Soros. Very public recently about lots of things. Scott Besant is losing it. Let me just put it before I get to his mortgage fraud allegations and those against him. He's losing it. How many stories do I have to begin with? Scott Besant got into a fist fight today with Fill in the Blank. It was Elon Musk at one point, and then apparently it was somebody else recently. So when he's not putting his dukes up, apparently literally at meetings and pushing and shoving, he is, you know, trying to argue out of both sides of his mouth, we should leave the Federal Reserve alone and keep it independent and as a central bank away from the president's grips. And then on the other hand, we should totally overhaul the Federal Reserve and we should get it out of certain things that it's doing. And, and why is monetary policy only in the hands of the Federal Reserve? I don't know, because that's what we've done since the nation's founding and it seems to be working pretty well until your president got in. Now let's turn to Scott Besant. Here's his statement. Going after Lisa Cook, apparently forgetting that in 2007 he took out two loans for $21 million. He's a man of the people. $21 million worth of mortgages on two pieces of property. Another one in Massachusetts. What's with Massachusetts? Shout out to Massachusetts. Everybody seems to have a second home up in Massachusetts. But let's play the clip first. Before he knew I'd be able to do this. Hot take. You know, there are two kinds of people. There are people who think that President Trump is putting undue pressure on the Fed, and there are people like President Trump and myself who think that if a Fed official committed mortgage fraud that this should, this should be examined and that they shouldn't be serving as one of the nation's leading financial regulators. And you know, what we haven't heard from Ms. Cook is we haven't heard her say, I didn't do it. We haven't heard her say I didn't do it. She Just keeps saying the president can't remove her. All right. Okay. Let's hope there's nothing in your background or past that is exactly the same thing. And it turns out there is. So Bloomberg has reported that and they've gotten the documents. I'll put it up on the screen here. That in 2007, through a lender, through bank of America, he took out two loans for $21 million. And someone on his behalf, his lawyer checked the box that they both be primary residences. Now, do I think that was fraud? No. Do I think that was a bank underwriting department working with its loan originator, you know, its bank officer, to get these loans approved for a guy who has hundreds of millions of dollars of assets even back in 2007? Yes. Did he really need to check both the boxes to get the. To break in the interest rate? No. So I don't think he. So I'm going to defend Scott% I'm going to defend him and say he did the exact same thing as Lisa Cook or somebody on his behalf. And he's not guilty of mortgage fraud and neither is she. But that is, the difference is that's being used fraudulently as the for cause reason to take her off her 14 year seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. And you've already, the Trump administration, through your fraud, convinced one judge, Judge Katzis, who just ruled in the dissent and the two to one decision keeping her in her job. That's why she's considering interest rates and making her decision about interest rates this week. You convinced one judge there that what she's being accused of is apparent fraud, not. He didn't even say alleged. He already convicted her. You see how dangerous lies can be. And then you got to fix them. So when you look at those documents for Scott Bessette, you see he checked the box. Now he's got all sorts of lawyers coming to his defense. He hired a high powered lawyer who I know from my past, Alex Spiro. He hired Alex Spiro, who's handled a lot of, a lot of cases like this, a lot of fraud cases like this, a lot of celebrity cases to, to defend him. Nothing says I'm not guilty like hiring Alex Spiro. You know that feeling after your morning coffee, that crash, the jitters, the bloating? 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You'll also receive a starter kit with over $100 in free gifts, including a rechargeable frother and a get this gunmetal serving spoon by going to everydaydose.com legal af or entering legal af at checkout. You'll also get free gifts throughout the year. That's everyday dose.com legal AF for 45% off your first order. Try it. Your mornings will thank you. And on top of that, he's got his own lawyer from back in 2007 and says I, I signed it for him and I. He didn't sign. I signed. Well, what are you claiming? That you signed a document your client didn't know about. You didn't have authority to sign the document. I don't. I think that's worse. Now, Bill Pulte, who's the original Karen in this story, if you know what I mean, who blew the whistle on Lisa Cook with a series of mean social media tweets? Why is he in his job, by the way? The mortgage market is in disarray. The housing market is in disarray. We just got new numbers that the housing market is at its lowest in terms of new starts, new construction in like the last 10, 10, 12 years. Interest rates are already dropping without the Federal Reserve cutting its interest rates. And he's still holding onto his job at the Fan at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to create mortgage liquidity. He's not a mortgage regulator. He's not the inspector general about fraud in mortgages. He's just in, he's just the guy who's a Nepo baby who bought his way into his position in the Trump administration by donating his parents money, Pulte Construction to get this job. And then from that perch, he believes he's allowed to go after and attack people with, with half statements and misstatements and omissions and pulling things out of context. And then, and then when he Got caught again. And it turns out she's got the goods and got the receipts from her own bank, from her own credit union that acknowledged that she knew that they knew it was a vacation home because she's got a home in Michigan and she's got a home in Atlanta and she's got a home in Massachusetts. I'm sure not as nice as Scott Besants. And turns out that she properly told her lender, her credit union, that it was going to be the Atlanta home was a vacation home. And consistent with that, she didn't take the property tax break that she's entitled to as owning a primary residence. She didn't take it in Georgia, in Fulton county, in Atlanta. She took it in Michigan. So she's not guilty of any fraud. And the Federal Reserve Philadelphia branch came out with a report in 2023 that demonstrates that. This is very common, this mortgage lender loan officer underwriting game where they say, we want to give her the lower rate. So we know it's she. We know she only has one primary residence. So just check the box for both. We'll get it through underwriting. That's on the bank side, that's not on the borrower side. They're not participating in mortgage fraud on the own, on their own bank. So that's what's happened here. And she's got the proof and she's got the receipts. But Bill Pulte doubles down on it. Oh, this is another indicia of fraud. She's a sophisticated financial operator. What do you even talk? Do you even know what comes out of your own mouth? Do you hear yourself? As my late mother would say, did you hear yourself? What's coming out? It doesn't even pass the straight face test. You got caught. It's wrong. Apologize. Say that you were wrong. Say that she didn't get due process, as two courts have already said that. Say that she did not commit the same mortgage, she didn't commit mortgage fraud. Any more than 4 out of 15 of the cabinet of Donald Trump, including the Treasury Secretary, committed. Just admit you were wrong. That's okay, too. That's actually a sign of strength, not weakness. A sign of weakness and a sign of corruption is that you continue to drill down and triple down on a false statement to try to defame an innocent person like the first black woman member of the Federal Reserve. I get it. Donald Trump wants to get rid of all the black people. I understand. We've seen it. If you're a black colonel or black general or black admiral, you're gone from the military. You're. You're lopped off of your positions. If you're. If you're the first black member of the National Labor Relations Board to chair it, you're gone. If you're the first black woman on the Federal Reserve, you're gone. And who are you going to be replaced by? Another white guy. I understand. Just say it out loud and we'll all get along a lot better. I think I'm glad we're here together. I might as touch and Legal AF we just hit the one year anniversary today on Legal AF, the YouTube channel. 810,000 subscribers, 265 million views, all because of you. We're doing the work, but you're watching. And you're fervently becoming such a strong part of our community, and I wanted to thank you for it. Here until my next report, I'm Michael Popo. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called wait for it Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal a for there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on substack. Come over now to free subscribe. Trip Planner by Expedia. 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