Romney Super PAC Is Attacking Gingrich For Cashing In On Foreclosures
Gregory Korte and Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY
A Detroit-area law firm that represents mortgage giants Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac in foreclosure and eviction cases contributed $200,000 to a super PAC supporting Republican Mitt Romney for president.
That super PAC, Restore Our Future, has run ads against rival Newt Gingrich attacking his ties to Freddie Mac and accusing him of “cashing in” on the foreclosure crisis.
The contribution, dated Dec. 27, was written from the corporate account of Trott & Trott PC. A 2010 Supreme Court decision allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts on independent campaigns to support or oppose federal candidates.
Managing partner David Trott is a member of Romney’s Michigan finance committee. He and his wife also contributed $7,500 personally to the Romney campaign, according to FEC reports, and Trott employees also contributed more than $11,000 to Romney.
Through a firm spokesman, Trott declined to comment.
Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul explained it this way: “To the extent anyone is supporting Mitt Romney over President Obama it is because the state of the economy and the president’s failure to create jobs.” She referred further questions to Restore Our Future.
“We don’t comment on our donors beyond what is disclosed in our FEC report,” said Brittany Gross, a spokeswoman for the super PAC. By law, super PACs can’t coordinate with candidate campaign organizations.
In debates, ads and stump speeches, Romney has blasted Gingrich for his role as a consultant for Freddie Mac after he left Congress in 1999. “He made $1.6 million in his company, the very institution that helped stand behind the huge housing crisis here in Florida,” Romney said in Dunedin, Fla., this week.
With 96 attorneys, the Farmington Hills firm is one of two law firms in Michigan authorized by both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage underwriters, to represent mortgage servicers foreclosing on government-backed mortgages.
“David Trott, either through Trott & Trott or individually, has a complete monopoly on everything that goes on post-foreclosure on someone’s home,” said Steve Dibert of MFI-Miami, who works as a mortgage investigator for homeowners in foreclosure.
