When Trump's longtime thug and henchmen Michael Cohen was forced to reveal in court that his short list of clients includes Fox News host Sean Hannity, Hannity downplayed their relationship and claimed that he only turned to Cohen for real estate advice.
That sounds innocent enough until you take stock of exactly of what kind of real estate business Cohen has been involved in.
The Guardian did some digging into Sean Hannty's real estate portfolio and found that he is the hidden owner behind a number of shell companies that have been used to buy nearly a thousand properties including properties that are insured by the federal government.
Among the most valuable are two large apartment complexes in Georgia that Hannity bought in 2014 for $22.7m. The developments are in the cities of Perry and Brunswick, which have higher poverty rates and lower median incomes than the US averages. One- and two-bedroom units in Hannity’s apartment complexes are available to rent for $735 to $1,065 per month, according to brochures.
The Georgia purchases were funded with mortgages for $17.9m that Hannity obtained with help from Hud, which insured the loans under a program created as part of the National Housing Act. The loans, first guaranteed under the Obama administration, were recently increased by $5m with renewed support from Carson’s department. [...]
Late last month, Hannity’s mortgages were replaced with loans for $22.9m that were rewritten with Carson’s Hud and a new bank. There was no indication that Carson was personally involved in the process. Carson does, however, have the authority to allow Hannity from 2019 to convert the rental complexes into condominiums for sale, which could be lucrative for the television host.
Sean Hannity can be counted among the political talk show hosts who spent a significant amount of time attacking the Obama administration over the foreclosure crisis that was precipitated by the Bush administration, but documents reviewed by the Guardian show that Hannity has gobbled up a number of homes that were repossessed by banks in foreclosure.
In total, the Guardian found that shell companies linked to Hannity have purchased at least 870 homes over the past decade and, obviously, that time span includes the entire Obama administration.
I don't know if you could say Sean Hannity is secret slum lord, but he's something close to it. It appears his shtick is buying homes and properties in low-income neighborhoods and flipping them for a profit and at least some of those properties are subsidized by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti said over the weekend that the Sean Hannity's relationship with Michael Cohen is far more extensive than they've revealed to the public. He either knew this was coming or, like most of us, he justifiably suspects the worst.