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Notes -
I was skeptical of these claims, so I looked up the statutes involved (18 USC Section 1344 and 18 USC Section 1014).
First, it seems that for both of these statutes, the applicable mens rea requirement is "knowingly" -- not "knowingly and intentionally"
Second, I searched for pattern jury instructions from the 4th Circuit. I found South Carolina (which is obviously not Virginia) but I doubt there's much of a difference. Here are some excerpts from the jury instructions:
https://www.scd.uscourts.gov/pji/patternjuryinstructions.pdf
Would you agree that these pattern jury instructions seem to contradict your claims, as an attorney?
I am curious about this, would you mind providing a link?
As a side note, I am really curious to see whether James claimed tax benefits as though the property were an investment property.
Perhaps, but if James visited sporadically while someone else lived there on a continual basis, that's not "available primarily as a residence for Borrower’s personal use and enjoyment" The house is primarily available for some other use, agreed?
Well do you agree that she received more favorable terms than she would have if the property had been categorized as an investment?
If by "license" you mean that future Democrats will feel justified in escalating further, then yes, that's a valid concern. Although in practice, I would imagine that they would primarily target leaders on the other side. But yeah, that's part of what was so troubling about James' activities. They invite reprisal, which invites further reprisal, and so on.
Agreed, although you can almost always find SOMETHING to use against someone.
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