For all his Trump-deranged bravado, Democrat Senator Adam Schiff, the notorious Russia-hoaxer, looked like a frightened rabbit caught in the spotlight Sunday morning when he appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to deny the mortgage fraud scandal that has embroiled him.
He should be nervous.
A grand jury in Maryland is weighing criminal indictments for Schiff over alleged mortgage fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud and false statements to financial institutions that were uncovered by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, claiming he certified both a Maryland property and a California condominium as his primary residence for tax and mortgage purposes.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and at least two other unnamed people are facing similar allegations, which carry potential jail terms up to 30 years.
“It’s patently false and the president knows it,” blustered Schiff, claiming FHFA head Bill Pulte was “essentially doing the president’s bidding against me, against Letitia James [and] against this person on the Federal Reserve.
“Mortgage is their new weapon to go after their critics.”
However, Schiff’s attempts to dismiss the allegations against him as “retribution” or part of a campaign of “lawfare” by an “authoritarian” president are not only hilariously hypocritical but miss an important point.
‘A serious crime’
Mortgage fraud is a serious matter that affects us all.
Banks offer significantly better rates and require smaller down payments for primary residences because they deem them lower risk than investment properties since homeowners are less likely to default on the home they live in.
If enough people falsely claim investment properties as their primary residence, lenders inadvertently carry higher risks that could see the collapse of the entire financial system, as happened in the 2008 global financial crisis, when widespread fraud and inadequate regulation led to a wave of defaults.
It’s no small crime, and those Trump critics who pretend it is trivial and commonplace have short memories and low ethics.
Pulte, a Trump appointee with deep expertise in housing finance, is quite properly focused on cleaning up the industry.
“Mortgage fraud is a serious crime,” Pulte told me, promising it will “be nearly eliminated after we’re done.”
His crusade to root out fraud, waste and unethical conduct in the housing finance system is to ensure the stability of the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which guarantee about half the country’s residential mortgages.
Pulte notes that the mortgage fraud case he referred to the DOJ against Lisa Cook is especially significant because “the very person entrusted with setting interest rates should never manipulate them for personal gain.”
It’s significant in another way too, because it plays into Trump’s power struggle with Jerome Powell.
The independent Federal Reserve chairman has stubbornly refused to cut interest rates, citing inflation concerns, earning the wrath of President Trump, who points out that the Fed was happy enough to adjust rates to Joe Biden’s political benefit, including by a half percentage point seven weeks before the 2024 election.
Full Op-ed Continues Over at The New York Post:
Hypocritical Dems are flouting laws and blaming Trump – they are missing an important point in the process https://t.co/BktJfOptmc pic.twitter.com/zrt9Sq097V
— NY Post Opinion (@NYPostOpinion) August 25, 2025
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