The investigation into Michael Cohen has revealed that client number three, also known as Fox News host and unofficial chief of staff to Donald Trump, Sean Hannity, has assembled quite an empire of foreclosed-on homes.
The records link Hannity to a group of shell companies that spent at least $90m on more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade. The properties range from luxurious mansions to rentals for low-income families. Hannity is the hidden owner behind some of the shell companies and his attorney did not dispute that he owns all of them.
But it’s not just that Hannity has been engaged in the lucrative world of playing real estate vulture. He’s also been involved in borrowing money from HUD.
The Fox News host bought two apartment complexes in Georgia in 2014 for $22.7 million, according to The Guardian. It reported that HUD helped him get mortgages worth $17.9 million to fund the purchases by insuring the loans under a National Housing Act program.
Hannity has in turn attacked the media for revealing his eight-figure taxpayer-funded loans.
It is ironic that I am being attacked for investing my personal money in communities that badly need such investment and in which, I am sure, those attacking me have not invested their money.
Yes. How dare people criticize Sean Hannity for buying up foreclosed homes and using HUD money to play slumlord, while he was doing daily stories on the “housing crisis” and attacking President Obama over the rate of foreclosures. And Hannity got a convenient $5 million boost in his HUD loans after he talked up Ben Carson for the job—with a much bigger payday on the horizon.
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Hannity’s Georgia properties are in the Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven and the town of Perry, near Macon. Both areas have above average poverty rates and below average median incomes.
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.
Hannity did more than just praise Carson on the air. He interviewed him and talked up the very program that was allowing Hannity to snatch up buildings, without ever mentioning that he was benefiting personally.
“I know you’ve done a good job,” Hannity told Carson.
Hannity complained during the discussion that home ownership in the US was at a 51-year low – a false claim he has made several times on air – and criticised the state of public housing.
“I like the idea of them owning the place,” Hannity said of people who receive housing assistance. “Well, that’s the real ideal,” said Carson.
Of course Hannity like the idea of “them” owning the place. So long as “them” is actually “him.”
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.
Nothing like keeping the cash moving round the Fox News/Trump White House circuit.