This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 4 episode of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.”
Donald Trump wants you to believe that his administration is tough on crime. And if there is one crime that his administration says it absolutely will not tolerate — one crime that they will go to the ends of the earth to prosecute — it appears to be mortgage fraud.
According to Trump’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Authority, Bill Pulte, this administration is laser-focused on prosecuting mortgage fraud, no matter who commits it. But here is the thing: so far, all the people Pulte has accused of mortgage fraud have one thing in common — they’re all people the president considers his enemies.
It seems Pulte is happy to talk about alleged mortgage fraud by Democrats, but he can’t talk about mortgage fraud allegations against Republicans.
In April, Pulte asked the Justice Department to investigate New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud. In May, Pulte asked the Justice Department to investigate another Democrat, Sen. Adam Schiff of California, for alleged mortgage fraud.
Earlier this month, he did it again, this time alleging that Federal Reserve Board governor Lisa Cook committed mortgage fraud. Trump then used those claims as a pretext to fire Cook, and on Thursday, NBC News reported that the Justice Department had officially opened a criminal investigation into Cook.
All of these officials have denied any wrongdoing, and both Cook and James have said the allegations against them are the result of clerical errors. But Pulte says that does not matter.
“There are a lot of other people that have been criminally referred, and they don’t have this type of benefit being given to them, which is, ‘Oh, maybe it’s a clerical error, or maybe it’s this.’ Did you sign these documents or did you not?” Pulte told CNBC on Thursday.
Pulte definitely wants people to believe he has a zero-tolerance policy for mortgage fraud. But when CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Pulte in that same interview about credible allegations that Texas’ pro-Trump Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, committed this same type of mortgage fraud, he had a much different response.
“Unless it’s been made public by lawyers like Norm Eisen or in criminal referrals, I’m not going to comment on any specific situation,” Pulte told Sorkin. “If things are made public or if we decide to make them public, then I will talk about it.”
It seems Pulte is happy to talk about alleged mortgage fraud by Democrats, but he can’t talk about mortgage fraud allegations against Republicans. Not unless it’s “made public.”
Now, set aside how much that last part seems to contradict everything he said before, the allegations against Paxton have already been made public.
A simple Google of “Paxton” and “mortgage fraud” pulls up quite an array of articles from a range of national and local outlets that have been reporting on the attorney general’s mortgages for months. Paxton’s Republican primary opponent, Sen. John Cornyn, has even started running attack ads all about his mortgage problem.
But Paxton isn’t the only Republican with apparent mortgage issues that Pulte seems to be ignoring. On Thursday, ProPublica reported that not one, not two, but three separate Trump Cabinet members appear to have committed this same type of mortgage fraud.
ProPublica reported that not one, not two, but three separate Trump Cabinet members appear to have committed this same type of mortgage fraud.
Trump’s labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer; his Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Lee Zeldin; and his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, all have mortgages on more than one home that they claim as their primary residence. When asked for comment, spokespeople for each of those officials suggested they had done nothing wrong.
A spokesperson for Zeldin said that “EVERY ‘I’ was dotted and ‘t’ was crossed.” A spokesperson for Chavez-DeRemer said that she and her husband bought a home with the intent to retire there, but then Chavez-DeRemer decided to run for Congress and did not move. And a spokesperson for Duffy said “The bank, not the Secretary, determined and classified both mortgages as primary residences.”
Maybe that’s true, maybe the bank screwed up the documents. That happens. But according to Pulte, this administration has a zero-tolerance policy, even when it comes to seemingly innocent mistakes.
But let’s be real: Going after mortgage fraud isn’t really Pulte’s goal at all. His goal is to ingratiate himself with Trump by going after the president’s enemies — and that double standard is getting more and more obvious by the day.
Allison Detzel contributed.
