Discussion: Official: Whitaker's Abandoned Project Dealt A Blow To Affordable Housing

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Official: Whitaker's Abandoned Project Dealt A Blow To Affordable Housing Official: Whitaker's Abandoned Project Dealt A Blow To Affordable Housing Back to article
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Do we have any info on how Whitaker ran he US Attorney office from 2004-2009?

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Whitaker is in a lot of legal peril. If he takes even one step to interfere with the Mueller investigation, you can be sure that Mueller will document it, it will get to the D’s in the House, and then when a new administration/AG take over in January 2021 Whitaker will be indicted for obstruction of justice. Lots of people in DOJ will want to stick a pick ax into his back to try to restore some institutional legitimacy.

I am not sure if Whitaker is smart enough to look it up, but the statue of limitations is 5 years…

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I am sure a failed real estate development project is a plus on any resume presented to Donald Trump.

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Another Trump shyster. A perfect pick for Trump’s Acting AG. For the rest of us, not so perfect.

But I bet he’s good at acting. Well, maybe not so much that either.

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With bonus points if it barred minorities…

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I’ve heard of this one, but was this the only thing his office worked on in 5 years?

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The sickening details of this theft (what else would I call it?) stay with me. Like the electrical contractor unpaid $14,000. When he sued to collect, Whitaker’s office was closed down and there was no way to contact him so the contractor gave up. There were more contractors who were ripped off. In the end W. leaves the project with a 6 figure profit. And this thief is the acting Attorney General?

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So I’m just spitballing here, but it doesn’t require a real estate rocket scientist to realize that a building in a gentrifying neighborhood is worth a lot more without an obligation to rent to middle-income tenants than with that obligation. (Especially if some of those middle-income tenants might be more melanin-enabled.) So one interpretation is that Whitaker and his friends were utter incompetents and knew nothing about how to manage a rehab project. The other is that they realized they could do at least as well by running out the clock.

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@paulw has a good potential explanation of what happened, but I’m going with this explainer:

a handyman who is identified in documents as the general contractor

Whitaker went cheap to pad his profits, hired somebody without the appropriate skill set.