Grayson, Noting MJ Report, Wants Foreclosure Halt

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When we published our investigation in August into the controversial law firms that often use dubious—and sometimes allegedly illegal—practices to foreclose on homeowners, at least one member of Congress was reading.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fl.), the brash congressman from central Florida, has asked Florida’s Supreme Court to halt all foreclosures by three of the state’s most powerful law firms. The firms, also known as “foreclosure mills,” are under investigation by state attorney general Bill McCollum. In his letter to the court, sent Monday, Grayson highlighted Mother Jones’ reporting on the firms under investigation: the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, Shapiro and Fishman, and the Law Offices of David J. Stern.

The Stern law firm was the focus of a Mother Jones investigation published online in early August. Not long after that story came out, the attorney general’s office announced its probe of the three firms Grayson mentioned. Since then, the scrutiny of these firms’ practices has only increased—and hasn’t gone unnoticed in Congress. In his letter, Grayson wrote, “This is lawlessness. I respectfully request that you abate all foreclosures involving these firms until the Attorney General of the state of Florida has finished his investigations of those firms for document fraud.”

Here’s the letter from Grayson:

Foreclosure Mill State Supreme Court Request

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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