Once more, liberal hypocrisy rears its ubiquitous head. This time, in the form of former “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart.
As reported by the New York Post on Wednesday, Stewart slammed former President Donald Trump for the outcome of his alleged fraud case in New York City. The crux of the case was that Trump allegedly swindled bankers by overvaluing the value of his assets to obtain loans.
Turns out Stewart was tossing verbal brickbats from inside a rhetorical glass house.
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To recap, Trump was prosecuted by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who declared right after she was elected that her mission was to get the billionaire realtor and former president.
When the trial recently ended, Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who declared Trump guilty before the trial even started, ruled that Trump owed $454 million.
In a case that had no victims because the bankers never claimed Trump defrauded them, and whose loans were fully repaid by Trump.
Nonetheless, in order to appeal Engoron’s draconian penalty, Trump had to float the entire amount as a bond, and questions arose whether he could raise the cash.
Then, on Monday, an appeals court slashed the bond amount to $175 million. Trump responded by telling reporters, “It will be my honor to post [the bond], and we’ll post whatever is necessary, whether it be cash, security or bond.”
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Stewart melted down.
As the Post reported, Stewart played a clip of “Shark Tank” personality Kevin O’Leary on his program, explaining that inflating real estate assets to obtain financing “is done by every real estate developer everywhere on Earth in every city.”
“How is he not this mad about overvaluations in the real world?” Stewart thundered. “Because they are not victimless crimes.”
“Money isn’t infinite. A loan that goes to the liar doesn’t go to someone who’s giving a more honest evaluation. So the system becomes incentivized for corruption.”
“The attorney general of New York knew that Trump’s property values were inflated because when it came time to pay taxes, Trump undervalued the very same properties,” Stewart added. “It was all part of a very specific real estate practice known as lying.”
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Then came the oops.
The Post reported on Wednesday that Stewart sold a nearly 6,300-square-foot penthouse in Manhattan in 2014 for 829% more than its assessed value.
According to the Post, Stewart’s property fetched $17.5 million despite having an estimated market value of only $1.88 million. It was officially assessed for less than that, pegged at $847,174.
The Post noted that “the property’s asking price at that time is not available in listing records.”
“Records also show that Stewart paid significantly lower property taxes, which were calculated based on that assessor valuation price — precisely what he called Trump out for doing,” the Post continued.
“Meanwhile, the New York assessor valuation on Stewart’s former penthouse is the exact same citation method and metric that New York Attorney General Letitia James used to value Trump’s private and personal properties, and then sued him for inflating those assets,” the Post added.
Stewart’s reps did not respond to a request for comment.
Among the comments on X about the Post’s report was one by right-leaning pundit Tim Pool, who observed, “Did @jonstewart commit fraud when he sold his penthouse for $17.5M? NY listed its market value at $1.8M an AV at around 800k… Who did he defraud?? I am SHOCKED … SHOCKED.”
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