...Lowell, a partner at the Winston & Strawn LLP law firm, was hired by the Office of the New York State Attorney General and not retained personally by James, according to the Times Union. 

The decision to hire Lowell, a prominent white-collar defense lawyer, was based in part on the AG’s office belief that the bombshell criminal referral filed by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte earlier this month was directly correlated to the civil fraud lawsuit James’ office brought against President Trump last year, the outlet reported. 

Tish James has a number of pressing and highly questionable real estate paperwork issues that need to be addressed in two different states.

...James is accused of falsifying records to get home loans for a property in Virginia that she claimed was her “principal residence” in 2023 — while still serving as a New York state prosecutor, according to Pulte’s referral to the Justice Department. 

Pulte also alleged that in February 2001, James purchased a five-family dwelling in Brooklyn  but has “consistently misrepresented the same property as only having four units in both building permit applications and numerous mortgage documents and applications.” 

I had a post the other day that goes into great detail on some of the problems; if you need a refresher, it's worth checking out.

 As John noted, the rumored $855 per billable hour lawyer, Lowell, fired off a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday. It was basically a litany of TDS-inspired grievances and a declaration that James was a victim of Trump's overactive revenge complex. She did nothing wrong - certainly nothing criminal - Lowell asserted, and what errors existed were easily explained and rectified 'mistakes.' Lowell then gave it his best shot doing so.

Could happen to anyone, you know?

...In a six-page letter Lowell sent Thursday to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, he accused President Donald J. Trump of seeking to weaponize the Justice Department by targeting James as part of a “political retribution” campaign for the investigations her office has conducted into his business dealings. Trump, in turn, has accused James of “weaponizing” her office to pursue cases against him during and after his first term.

Lowell’s letter also provided the first detailed responses to allegations that James had misrepresented the number of occupied units in a multifamily Brooklyn residence she purchased in 2001; a 1983 mortgage document in which she was listed as her father’s “wife”; and court documents he said erroneously stated that a Virginia residence she purchased in 2023 with her niece would be her “principal residence.”

“The stunning hypocrisy of President Trump’s complaint that the Justice Department had been 'politicized' and 'weaponized' against him is laid bare as he and others in his administration are now asking you to undertake the very same practice,” Lowell wrote. “This so-called 'criminal referral,' which recycles long-disproven allegations and is '(b)ased on media reports' lacks any credible foundation.”

Lowell said Pulte and the media reports were 'cherry picking' information that made his client look bad and were easily explained once the real truth was out.

And in one instance, Ms James is only in this pickle because she was trying to help her family.

...“Director Pulte cherry-picked an August 17, 2023 power of attorney (letter) that mistakenly stated the property to be Ms. James’ principal residence and at the same time absolutely ignored her very clear and all caps statement two weeks earlier to the mortgage loan broker that '(t)his property WILL NOT be my primary residence (.) It will be Shamice’s primary residence,'” Lowell wrote, referring to James' niece. 

In connection with her Brooklyn residence, James has maintained it as having four tenants and not five despite a 2001 certificate of occupancy that listed it as as five-unit building with the city’s Buildings Department.

James' office has asserted that she has always maintained the residential property as an owner-occupied, four-family residence since she purchased it in February 2001. 

Lowell’s letter provided the first detailed response on that matter, noting James had purchased the residence to help her family.

“Initially, Ms. James’ mother lived on the first floor; Ms. James occupied the second floor; a close family friend occupied the third floor; and her brother occupied the fourth floor,” Lowell wrote. “The basement did not have any unit. After Ms. James’ mother died, and to this day, Ms. James has occupied the first and second floor units for herself, while her close family friend and brother occupy units on the top two floors.”

Tugs at the heartstrings, no?

And of course she's not her father's wife, lol! That was a clerical error made by someone else.

The explanations roll on through Lowell's letter, while dripping with disdain that he even has to be bothered to respond to this biased nonsense.

Well, normally it would be a he-said-she-said, but what has made this so fun has been the presence of Sam Antar, the former Crazy Eddie's CFO, now forensic accountant, and dynamite eagle-eye who broke most of the James mortgage and building scandal to begin with. 

He has had a field day taking Abbe Lowell's letter apart, sentence by sentence, and it's not pretty.

God help Tish James if even half of what Sam's found sticks, and I will lay money that 90% of it does, as Antar has copies of every last supporting document as well.

In an official letter to U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, dated April 24, 2025, Letitia James’ attorney tried to dismiss a critical piece of evidence as an innocent mistake: a sworn Power of Attorney declaring that James intended to make a Virginia house her “principal residence.”

That document wasn’t a throwaway. It was the legal linchpin that enabled her to close a federally backed mortgage.

What’s most alarming isn’t just this single false declaration, but the systematic pattern it represents. For over two decades, James has filed mortgage documents and financial disclosures containing demonstrably false information:

• Every mortgage document for her 296 Lafayette Avenue property falsely classifies it as a four-unit dwelling, contradicting its legally binding Certificate of Occupancy that clearly designates it as five units
• Every financial disclosure filed with New York State shows some combination of undisclosed mortgages, phantom loans that don’t appear in property records, delayed reporting, or shifting classifications
• Each document was signed under penalty of perjury with information that directly contradicts legally binding records
• This pattern spans multiple properties, multiple lenders, and multiple government agencies—revealing not isolated mistakes but a consistent strategy of misrepresentation when financially advantageous
• Every single false statement provided James with direct financial benefits—from more favorable mortgage terms and interest rates to qualifying for federal assistance programs she was otherwise ineligible for

Mr. Lowell’s letter attempts to dismiss substantial evidence of financial and property misrepresentations by characterizing documented legal violations as mere clerical errors. His defense rests on selective citation, omission of key evidence, and misdirection through claims of political persecution. This comprehensive rebuttal presents the full documentary record that contradicts his claims and establishes a troubling pattern of misrepresentation spanning multiple properties and years.

Don't forget, Antar is a FORENSIC accountant who can do all the math required and then still crawls through signatures on paperwork and down back alleys of ancient titles, while quoting chapter and verse of relevant statutes.

Lowell is a defense lawyer, as Sam points out in his most recent post concerning his claims about the status of James' Brooklyn property.

Letitia James’ Lawyer Doesn’t Understand the Property He’s Defending

According to Sam Antar, Mr Lowell does not realize that all buildings are not alike.

In a high-stakes response to a federal criminal referral, Letitia James’ defense lawyer, Abbe David Lowell, submitted a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi that made a stunning error: he fundamentally misunderstood the very property at the center of the investigation. The letter, prompted by the FHFA’s referral for potential mortgage fraud, falsely claimed James’ Brooklyn property “has always functioned as a four-person residence.” But official records, utility infrastructure, and tenant complaints paint a very different—and legally significant—picture.

He also dings Lowell for describing a building that, by every acceptable metric used as a standard, doesn't exist.

...This description reveals a lawyer completely unfamiliar with:

• The building’s legal classification
• The physical layout of the property
• The actual utility services present
• The documented complaint history

Most strikingly, the Certificate of Occupancy shows no fourth floor exists—yet the lawyer claims James’ brother lives there. That alone should have disqualified the letter.

This piece has a just devastating floor plan comparison between what Abbe Lowell wrote to Pam Bondi about James' building and what that building actually exists as in official city records like occupancy certificates, Con Edison utility hookups, and tenant complaints, where there is supposedly no one living but family.

Hmmmm.

This is most assuredly a scratch-your-chin conflict between story versions, and I know whose I'm going with.

This Antar guy writes a whale of a true-life detective story.

It's hard to wait for the next installment.