"Romney super PAC supporter has ties to Freddie and Fannie
By Gregory Korte and Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY
Updated 6h 44m ago
WASHINGTON – A Detroit-area law firm that represents mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in foreclosure and eviction cases contributed $200,000 to a super PAC supporting Republican Mitt Romney for president.
By Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney greets supporters in Columbia, South Carolina.
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.
The contribution was disclosed in a filing Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.
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.
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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.
Trott owns Attorneys Title, which researches and files deeds, the Detroit Legal News, which publishes the legally required foreclosure notices, and Trott Recovery Services, which manages abandoned properties for banks.
"At each step of the way, there's a cha-ching that can be heard at Trott & Trott headquarters," said Oakland County, Mich., Treasurer Andy Meisner, a Democrat. "Not only are they making money hand over fist at people's misfortune, but it's more than that. Now they're taking a leading role in electing politicians that will see things their way."
Two Michigan counties — Oakland and Ingham — are suing Fannie and Freddie, accusing them of evading property transfer taxes by falsely claiming to be government agencies.
Ingham Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel Jr., a Democrat, has named Trott & Trott as a defendant in his lawsuit, claiming the firm went beyond simply representing mortgage companies and instead played an active role in creating the financial arrangements.
Trott has a history of supporting Republicans: Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign in Michigan was run out of the firm's office building. Trott donated $30,800 to the Republican National Committee last year.
Contributing: Christopher Schnaars in McLean, Va."
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