Jon Stewart railed against Trump for allegedly ‘overvaluing’ his property, turns out he

Where is Letitia James when you actually need her, because the internet sleuths have uncovered an alleged crime, and it’s serious — in fact, if the precedent stands, it’s an offense so serious that it deserves a fine of almost half a billion dollars, and potential property seizures.

According to a report published today at the New York Post:

Jon Stewart found to have overvalued his NYC home by 829% after slamming Trump’s civil case as ‘not victimless’

Jon Stewart is facing online backlash after the comedian opined on air this week that Donald Trump’s civil real estate case overvaluing his properties was ‘not victimless’ — when it turns out the price of a previous home sale finds Stewart doing the exact same thing, The Post has learned.

Well, well, well… imagine that.

I have never been into the “comedy” skit late-night television programs because I’ve just never found those people funny, but of course my distaste for them grew the more ignorant and vocally left they became—so watching Stewart be made into an absolute clown, by his own hand, because he’s too dumb or unaware to realize he’s walking into the snare he set? That’s a chef’s kiss.

Per the same Post item, Stewart launched into a monologue on Monday night to lambast Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary for seemingly rationalizing and justifying Trump’s New York real estate deals (the ones under Peekaboo James’s scrutiny) and prowess. From the article:

On Monday night, Stewart, 61, unpacked Trump’s $454 million appeal bond, calling out experts framing the former president’s New York civil case as not causing direct harm to any one individual.

…

In response, Stewart asked: “How is he [O’Leary] not this mad about overvaluations in the real world?’

‘Because they are not victimless crimes,’ he [Stewart] said.

…

Stewart also contended that failing to declare a higher market value on a property, while paying taxes based on a lower assessed value, constitutes fraudulent behavior.

‘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.’

Huh, is that so? Well funny he should say that, because as internet detectives have apparently uncovered, Stewart is just as guilty of overvaluing properties: “In 2014, Stewart sold his 6,280-square-foot Tribeca duplex to financier Parag Pande for $17.5 million.” Now, according to documents from the assessor’s office and obtained by Post journalists, “the property was market-valued at only $1.882 million. The actual assessor valuation was even lower, at $847,174.” Furthermore:

Records also show that Stewart paid significantly lower property taxes, which were calculated based on that market value price — precisely what he called out Trump for doing in his Monday monologue.

Pande, who purchased the penthouse from Stewart, then resold the property at a nearly 26% loss than what he initially paid for it, according to the Real Deal — at just over $13 million — in 2021.

As Stewart coined, actions like this apparently aren’t victimless—by how many millions of dollars did Stewart avoid paying his “fair share”? What about Pande? Poor Pande! Sounds like he got scammed by “a very specific real estate practice known as lying [emphasis added].” He bought a high-end luxury property he must have thought was worth more, because after 7 years, he lost around four and a half million dollars in the deal; he got duped, right?

Or… is it possible that property is worth what someone is willing to pay for it in a free market, and the word “estimates” means exactly what the word means, and banks and mortgage companies do their own due diligence (apart from any property owner valuations) when considering real estate deals of which these businesses may want to be part?

Hasn’t Stewart ever heard the old saying about throwing stones in glass houses? Apparently not, which is just as well, because I love schadenfreude.

Image: Public domain.