Stewart attempted to skewer Trump for allegedly misrepresenting the value of his properties in the state, labeling these actions as corrupt and emphasizing that they weren't "victimless crimes." However, this whole spiel backfired spectacularly when eagle-eyed social media users uncovered Stewart's own faux pas – the sale of his Tribeca duplex in 2014, where he drastically overestimated its value.
Essentially, Stewart found himself in the same hot water he was accusing Trump of wading through, which underscores the ludicrousness of his holier-than-thou stance on the matter.
From Western Journal:
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?
“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.
