Aaron Glantz's new book, Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall St. Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions of Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream is generally horrible for Trump's inner circle. Amy Goodman: "Aaron Glantz reveals how the 2008 housing crisis decimated millions of Americans' family wealth but enriched President Donald Trump's inner circle, including Trump cabinet Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, Trump's longtime friend and confidant Tom Barrack and billionaire Republican donor Steve Schwarzman." In short, crooks from the Trumpland Swamp-- the aforemented Mnuchin, Ross, Schwarzman and Barrack-- took advantage of a rigged system to transfer billions of dollars from individual homeowners into their own pockets during the Great Recession. None are in prison and none have been charged for their grand scale crimes. But one of them was almost charged and could have easily been serving prison time now... instead as Trump's crooked Treasury Secretary helping Trump violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution every day of the week.But, as Politico reported yesterday, Glantz also reveals Kamala Harris' sordid and disgraceful role in this mess. He wrote that "Harris not only allowed Steve Mnuchin’s OneWest bank to get away with foreclosing on tens of thousands of state homeowners, but then tried to bury the evidence."
"Consumers wonder how is it that we all got so far behind" and so many Americans lost their homes in the Great Recession, Glantz-- a two-time Peabody Award winning journalist with California-based Reveal and the Center for Investigative Reporting-- said Monday in an interview.“The answer is all of these officials screwed up and dropped the ball-- and hid it. The time period when all this homewrecking occurred was during the Obama presidency, and when AG’s like Kamala Harris were on the job," he said. "It happened on her watch. And she’s never been really forced to tell the other story-- and wrestle with the truth of what happened."In California, Mnuchin-- now the Treasury secretary-- acquired regional banks like OneWest with the federal government’s help; the banks got billions in subsidies as they foreclosed on 35,000 homeowners in the Golden State alone, Glantz reports. Harris did little to stop that bleeding-- and later tried to suppress evidence of her inaction, he argues."Harris’ deputies recommended that their boss sue the bank," Glantz said, citing the bank’s loss-share agreement with the FDIC, which stated that Mnuchin’s bank could only receive payments from the government if it followed proper foreclosure procedures. "If the state of California found OneWest violated those rules, the payments could stop-- saving not only homeowners... but government coffers as well.""[But] despite a strong recommendation from her staff," Harris never legally pursued Mnuchin’s OneWest bank, he says. "As a result, no one at OneWest faced prosecution-- and no one got their homes back."...Earlier this year, Harris told the San Francisco Chronicle that she "didn’t have the legal ability," because "the rules were written in favor of the banks"-- an argument Glantz reports was disputed in a 25-page memo produced by Harris’ own staff. "Case NOT filed despite strong recommendations," reads a cover sheet atop the memo, Glantz writes.He said the Mortgage Fraud Strike Force Harris launched does get credit for taking action, but mostly went after "small potatoes" offenders. On bigger fish, however, her staff "did investigate OneWest, and did recommend prosecution-- but she did bury their report and declined to launch a prosecution," he said. "That happened."Glantz writes in Homewreckers that "the only reason we know about California’s investigations into OneWest today is because David Dayen of the news website The Intercept obtained a leaked copy," and published it in January 2017. "By then," Glantz reports, "Harris was no longer California attorney general-- she was a U.S. senator."
It's worth noting that Mnuchin was a mega-donor to politicians-- all Republican politicians... except one: Kamala Harris. These were the Mnuchin contributions I was able to dig up for 2016
• Republican National Committee- $309,600• New Jersey Republican State Committee- $10,000• Connecticut Republican Campaign Committee- $10,000• Republican Party of Tennessee- $10,000• Republican Party of Wyoming- $10,000• Republican Party of Louisiana- $10,000• Republican Party of West Virginia- $10,000• Republican Party of Virginia- $10,000• Republican Party of Mississippi- $10,000• Republican Party of Arkansas- $10,000• Republican Party of South Carolina- $10,000• New York Republican Federal Campaign Committee- $10,000• Paul Ryan (R-WI)- $5,400• Scott Walker (R-WI)- $2,700• Donald J. Trump (R-NY)- $5,400• Kamala Harris (D-CA)- $2,000
Just a coincidence?By the way, Harris' RealClearPolitics polling average is 5.4% and in her home state, which she once hoped would propel her into the presidency, she's not in the top tier:
• Elizabeth Warren- 23%• Status Quo Joe- 22%• Bernie- 21%• Kamala- 8%• Mayo Pete- 6%