Big Coverup Exposed in Bogus Mortgage Fraud Cases

INSIDE: Bill Pulte ... Kash Patel ... Ed Martin

(Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

A Scandal Within a Scandal

The Trump DOJ’s bogus prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James just got a lot more difficult to pull off, with what appears to be a major administration coverup of the origins of the case against her.

In a new report, the WSJ has fleshed out a Reuters account from last week about the ousting of the acting inspector general at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. It gets a little complicated, but stick with me. It’s important.

As you well know by now, FHFA director Bill Pulte is the instigator of the bogus mortgage fraud investigations of James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA). The Trump administration has seized on Pulte’s bogus claims to, variously, indict James, attempt to fire Cook, and launch a criminal investigation of Schiff.

It’s the James case that’s of most interest here. She is seeking to dismiss the indictment against her on the grounds that it is a vindictive and selective prosecution. The new revelations bolster her arguments for dismissal.

Watchdogs at Fannie Mae had been looking into whether Pulte had “improperly obtained mortgage records of key Democratic officials,” including James, the WSJ reports:

Fannie’s ethics and investigations group had received internal complaints alleging senior officials had improperly directed staff to access the mortgage documents of James and others, according to the people. The Fannie investigators were probing to find out who had made the orders, whether Pulte had the authority to seek the documents and whether or not they had followed proper procedure, the people said.

The investigation into who was rifling around in the personal mortgage records of prominent Democrats was serious enough, apparently, to bring it to Joe Allen, the acting inspector general for FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (For those keeping score at home, Pulte is not just just the director of FHFA, he’s also chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.)

That’s where things get interesting, according to the WSJ: “The acting inspector general then passed the report to the U.S. attorney’s office in eastern Virginia, some of the people said.” The Eastern District of Virginia is where recently-installed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan is prosecuting James.

Still with me?

Last week’s Reuter’s report went further in describing the connection between Allen’s work and the James prosecution (emphasis mine):

Allen received notice of his termination from the White House after he made efforts to provide key information to prosecutors in that office, according to four sources. The information he turned over was constitutionally required, two of them said, while a third described it as being potentially relevant in discovery.

The description by Reuters is vague, but it suggests that Allen was attempting to give exculpatory evidence to the prosecution team, which, generally speaking, the government is legally required to share with the defendant — in this case, James.

In her motion last Friday to dismiss the case for vindictive prosecution, James referenced the Reuters’ report and indicated that she had not received from prosecutors whatever it was that Allen had turned over:

“The defense is left guessing at what other prosecutorial vindictiveness discovery exists in the government’s hands,” James’ lawyers wrote.

Allen wasn’t the only one ousted. About a dozen officials within Fannie Mae’s ethics and internal investigations unit were fired on Oct. 29 in the wake of the probe into origins of the bogus mortgage fraud claims and who had access to the personal mortgage records of James and others.

To sum up: Internal government watchdogs who were looking into the origins of the bogus mortgage fraud claims emanating from the Trump administration were fired en masse, but not before the acting inspector general for the FHFA managed to turn over what appears to be exculpatory evidence to federal prosecutors in the James case.

Stay tuned on this one.

Kash Patel and the ‘Boondoggle Ranch’

In a story headlined “Kash Patel’s ‘Effin Wild’ Ride as FBI Director,” the WSJ brings together the worst of his recent transgressions and adds a new boondoggle:

• Patel allegedly disrupted a counterterrorism investigation by prematurely posting about arrests in Michigan on Halloween: “Two friends of the alleged terrorists in New Jersey and Washington state caught wind of the arrests and moved up plans to leave the country, according to court documents and law-enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.”

• Patel used his government plane to attend his country music singer girlfriend’s performance of the national anthem in Pennsylvania and then fly to her Nashville home – in the middle of the government shutdown.

• Patel used the Gulfstream G550 to visit a “hunting resort” in Texas called the Boondoggle Ranch.

This mostly pales next to Patel purging the FBI of agents who investigated Trump and allowing the bureau to be used to target Trump foes for retribution, but it is the kind of conduct that can get you in trouble in MAGA world if you’re not the president.

Ed Martin Tries To Save Tina Peters

Former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters was convicted on state charges for trying to prove the 2020 Big Lie, so a presidential pardon from Donald Trump won’t help her, but U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin is continuing to advocate for some sort of federal intervention on her behalf, CNN reports:

Martin has continued to advocate for relief for Peters in recent weeks, several people familiar with the push told CNN, even though it is extremely unusual for the Justice Department to intervene in a state case this way. The department has already involved itself in a long-shot federal case, known as a habeas petition, that Peters filed in March, and urged a federal judge to free her from state prison while she appeals her conviction. That matter is still pending, but a decision is expected this year.

In the meantime, Martin says the Justice Department is trying to get Peters moved to federal prison.

Trump’s Attack On Higher Ed: Berkeley Edition

A protest Monday night in Berkeley at event held by Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA has gotten the attention of the Trump DOJ. Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the civil rights division, tweeted the announcement of her “investigation” while propagandizing about “Antifa.”

Every protest on a college campus is now a pretext for the Trump administration to “investigate” the university.

The Destruction: CFPB Edition

The Trump DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel has taken the position that the funding mechanism for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unlawful, leaving the agency with only enough cash to continue operating until early 2026, Politico reports.

Tracking Trump’s Domestic Military Deployments

Lawfare has a new tracker of the size, location, and purported legal authority for President Trump’s various domestic military deployments:

Venezuela Watch

• The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group has arrived in the Caribbean region as part of the Trump administration’s saber-rattling directed toward the regime of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

• Venezuela has responded with a mass mobilization.

• The United Kingdom – one of the Five Eyes countries – has suspended sharing intelligence with the United States about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in what it regards as illegal U.S. strikes, CNN reports.

$3M and ‘Sincere Regrets’

The Kansas newspaper raided by local law enforcement in August 2023 has reached a $3 million settlement with Marion County that includes a public apology.

Quote of the Day

“Of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”–Jeffrey Epstein, referring to Donald Trump in a January 2019 email

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