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Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Depends on which witch you're hunting

I don't have any doubt that LaToya Cantrell's attorney is correct in saying Jeff Landry is subpoenaing her personal banking records out of blind spite.  But I am interested in the fact that it is specifically this subpoena they are insisting needs to be quashed.
Cantrell is seeking only to quash one of the subpoenas, which seeks her personal banking records. Gibbens has described Landry's pursuit of those records as "nothing more than an intrusive and harassing witch-hunt by a political opponent."
Again, I think they're right about Landry. He's a prick and he's just in this thing because it's advantageous to him to be seen harrying the (sort of) Mayor Of New Orleans at this time. For Jeff Landry, LaToya really is the only "witch" being hunted.

But what if there's some actual voodoo hiding in those records regardless.  Because included in Cantrell's personal records are delinquent taxes related to a home loan financed by First NBC. And, as we have leanred this year, FNBC was the preferred money club of the city's political elite for a while. But then the bank's strategy of converting post-Katrina rebuilding tax credits into pet projects for club members collapsed onto itself and ended the party.

While it was up and running, though, the money club would have worked best when it could ensure political favor for projects it was financing. Which is why it would want to do favors for people in politics.  And so it's of interest when the personal financial records of  a prominent politician with ties to FNBC show up in a court procedeing.

Anyway, you see where this is going. Jeff Landry is making this about LaToya's city credit card usage. And while that isn't exactly nothing, he's really hunting the wrong witch. There's actually a whole coven out there. And Cantrell's high powered lawyer is working to shut down the line of inquiry that could lead to it.

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