Big Coverup Exposed In Bogus Mortgage Fraud Cases
A lot has happened. Here are some of the things. This is the TPM Morning Memo.
A scandal within a scandal
Trump’s Justice Department’s bogus prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James has become much more difficult to pursue, with what appears to be a major cover-up by the administration of the origins of the case against her.
In a new report, the WSJ expanded on a Reuters article from last week about the ouster of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s acting inspector general. This gets a little complicated, but bear with me. It’s important.
As you already know, FHFA Director Bill Pulte is the instigator of the bogus mortgage fraud investigations against James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA). The Trump administration took advantage of Pulte’s false claims to indict James, attempt to fire Cook, and launch a criminal investigation against Schiff.
It is the James case that is of most interest here. She seeks to dismiss the indictment against her on the grounds that it is a vindictive and selective prosecution. The new revelations strengthen his arguments in favor of dismissal.
Fannie Mae watchdogs were investigating whether Pulte “improperly obtained mortgage records of key Democratic officials,” including James, the WSJ reports:
Fannie’s ethics and investigations group had received internal complaints alleging that senior officials improperly asked staff to access mortgage documents for James and others, according to the sources. Fannie investigators were looking into who gave the orders, whether Pulte had the authority to request the documents and whether or not they followed proper procedure, the sources said.
The investigation into who was snooping through the personal mortgage records of prominent Democrats was apparently serious enough to bring it to Joe Allen, the acting inspector general of the FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (For those keeping score at home, Pulte is not only the director of the FHFA, he is also the chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.)
Here’s where things get interesting, according to the WSJ: “The acting inspector general then forwarded the report to the U.S. attorney’s office in Eastern Virginia, some of the people said.” The Eastern District of Virginia is where newly appointed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan is prosecuting James.
Still with me?
Last week’s Reuter report went further, describing the connection between Allen’s work and James’ accusation (emphasis mine):
Allen received a termination notice from the White House after he made efforts to provide key information to prosecutors in that office, according to four sources. The information he provided was constitutionally required, two of them said, while a third described it as potentially relevant to the preliminary investigation..
The Reuters description is vague, but it suggests that Allen was trying to provide exculpatory evidence to the prosecution team, which, generally speaking, the government is legally required to share with the accused — 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 anything that Allen had handed over:
“The defense must guess what other findings of prosecutorial vindictiveness exist in the hands of the government,” James’ attorneys wrote.
Allen wasn’t the only one ousted. About a dozen managers in Fannie Mae’s internal ethics and investigations unit were fired Oct. 29 following the investigation into the origins of the false mortgage fraud claims and who had access to the personal mortgage records of James and others.
Bottom line: Internal government watchdogs investigating the origins of the Trump administration’s false claims of mortgage fraud were fired en masse, but not before the FHFA’s acting inspector general 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 an article titled “Kash Patel’s ‘Effin Wild’ Ride as FBI Director,” the WSJ rounds up the worst of his recent transgressions and adds a new mess:
- Patel allegedly disrupted an antiterrorism investigation by prematurely releasing information about the Michigan arrests on Halloween: “Two friends of suspected terrorists in New Jersey and Washington learned of the arrests and advanced plans to leave the country, according to court documents and law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation. »
- Patel used his government plane to watch his country music singer girlfriend’s performance of the national anthem in Pennsylvania, then flew to his Nashville home — in the middle of a government shutdown.
- Patel used the Gulfstream G550 to visit a “hunting resort” in Texas called Boondoggle Ranch.
That pales in comparison to Patel purging the FBI of agents who investigated Trump and allowing the bureau to be used to target Trump’s enemies for retaliation, but it’s the kind of conduct that can get you in trouble in the 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 Big Lie of 2020, so a presidential pardon from Donald Trump won’t help her, but U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin continues 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 matter told CNN, even though it is extremely unusual for the Justice Department to intervene in a state case in this way. The department has already become involved in a long-running federal case, known as a habeas petition, that Peters filed in March, and urged a federal judge to release her from state prison while she appeals her conviction. This issue is still pending, but a decision is expected this year.
In the meantime, Martin says the Justice Department is trying to have Peters transferred to federal prison.
Trump’s Attack on Higher Education: Berkeley Edition
A protest Monday night in Berkeley at an event hosted by Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA caught the attention of Trump’s DOJ. Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Civil Rights Division, tweeted the announcement of his “investigation” while spreading propaganda about “Antifa.”
Every protest on a college campus is now an excuse for the Trump administration to “investigate” the university.
The Destruction: CFPB Edition
Trump’s DOJ legal counsel’s office has taken the position that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding mechanism is illegal, leaving the agency with only enough cash to continue operating until early 2026, Politico reports.
Track Trump’s domestic military deployments
Lawfare has a new system tracking the size, location, and purported legal authority of President Trump’s various domestic military deployments:
Venezuela Watch
- The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group arrived in the Caribbean region as part of the Trump administration’s attacks on Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro government.
- Venezuela responded with mass mobilization.
- The United Kingdom – one of the Five Eyes countries – has suspended intelligence sharing with the United States on suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in what it considers to be illegal US strikes, CNN reports.
3 million dollars 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 when he asked Ghislaine to stop.”Jeffrey Epstein, referring to Donald Trump in a January 2019 email
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