ICYMI: Pulte Investigated Political Rivals’ Mortgages - Even Todd Blanche’s

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Tuesday, September 22, 2026 

Washington, D.C. – New reporting in The Wall Street Journal reveals that Federal Housing Authority Director Bill Pulte used his office to investigate Trump’s political rivals as well as Attorney General Todd Blanche as the two “clashed” on Pulte’s “investigations related to the adversaries’ mortgage records.” 

“This is one more reason government corruption and weaponization are so dangerous: Washington insiders are using the machinery of government as a weapon to shield themselves from accountability and silence their opponents. Bill Pulte thinks his loyalty to Trump lets him operate with impunity – even investigating a senior administration official he clashed with to search for vulnerabilities. If insiders like Pulte can use government records to punish or pressure opponents without any consequences, what is to stop those in power from doing the same to any of us?” said Cole Leiter, Executive Director of Americans Against Government Censorship. 

Wall Street Journal: Bill Pulte Scrutinized Mortgages of Trump’s Political Rivals—and Todd Blanche

When housing chief Bill Pulte examined the mortgages of President Trump’s political adversaries last year, he also looked at those of Attorney General Todd Blanche, according to people familiar with the matter. 

That effort occurred as Pulte clashed with Blanche, who was then the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, over investigations related to the adversaries’ mortgage records. 

Some officials believed Pulte had been trying to collect information on Blanche and others to undermine them and pressure them to more quickly pursue the investigations, the people said. The dispute between the two men centered on investigations into some of the president’s favored targets, including Democrats Sen. Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom had earlier pursued investigations into Trump. 

Last year, Pulte referred allegations of mortgage fraud to the Justice Department for Schiff, James and Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, whom Trump has sought to remove from her post.

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Around the time Pulte is said to have scrutinized Blanche’s mortgages, the Justice Department was investigating whether some Trump administration officials, including Pulte, inappropriately shared information about the Justice Department’s investigation into Schiff with those who weren’t authorized to be part of it, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

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Pulte still runs the FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed firms that buy most Americans’ home loans from the banks that issue them.

Internal investigators at Fannie Mae last year started examining allegations from internal complaints that senior officials had improperly directed staff to access the mortgage documents of James and others. Pulte then removed the investigators from their posts, the Journal reported last November.

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