Virulently anti-Trump comedian and TV host Jon Stewart is facing a backlash after being accused of perpetrating the same behavior that he has criticized former President Donald Trump of committing.
Stewart is facing criticism after attacking Trump over claims that he overvalued some of his properties, a claim lodged against him during the former president’s New York civil case.
The former president has blasted the $454 million appeal bond and his legal team has questioned the ruling and said it is untoward for a “victimless crime.”
But Stewart has scoffed at that defense.
Stewart’s “The Daily Show” had run a clip of “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary attacking the ruling on CNN and saying that the whole court case is a danger for the entire real estate industry, the New York Post reported.
In the clip, CNN’s Laura Coates replied to O’Leary by pointing out that Trump was accused of falsifying business records in the second degree, along with insurance fraud and making false financial statements, all in connection with an attempt to inflate his assets.
But O’Leary explained that “[e]verything that you just listed off is done by every real estate developer everywhere on Earth in every city. This has never been prosecuted.”
After the clip ended, Stweart jumped in to quip, “How is he not this mad about overvaluations in the real world?
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“Because they are not victimless crimes,” Stewart added.
Stewart continued his attack, saying that, “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.”
He went on to claim that if someone pays lower taxes based on lower property values, then that is fraud.
“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 exclaimed. “It was all part of a very specific real estate practice known as lying.”
Stewart’s righteous indignation, though, soon came under fire when social media users began to notice a small flaw in Stewart’s pious stance against Trump and his “fraud.”
The Post reported that Stewart’s 2014 sale of his Tribeca duplex was not all as above-board as the TV host may have contended.
Stewart sold his 6,280-square-foot apartment to financier Parag Pande for $17.5 million. But at the time, the asking price of the property was not made public.
However, according to 2013-2014 assessor’s report, the property was only assessed at a market value of only $1.882 million. And the assessor’s value came in even lower at $847,174.
The overvaluation added up to a whopping 829 percent, according to the Post.
With all that, it was noted that Stewart paid far less in taxes on a property assessed at a mere $847,174, than he would on a property “worth” $17.5 million.
But even more to the point, Pande resold the property for only around $13 million in 2021, a 26 percent loss.
Stewart’s financial windfall caused many to wonder if the TV star committed the same “fraud” that he claimed that Trump committed.
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 He defraud??
I am SHOCKED
SHOCKED pic.twitter.com/9okis96VQP
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) March 26, 2024
The Post added that the tax bill for Stewart’s penthouse was assessed in the same way that Trump’s was, the same formula that New York Attorney General Letitia James used to claim Trump committed fraud.
“Stewart’s reps did not respond to The Post’s request for comment,” the outlet reported.
