The Government Accountability Office, an independent, nonpartisan investigative body in Congress, says it has opened an investigation into Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte.
In November, top Senate Democrats wrote to the agency asking it to “promptly investigate recent actions taken at the Federal Housing Finance Agency” by Pulte.
Specifically, actions related to “recent referrals of New York Attorney General Letitia James, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and Congressman Eric Swalwell to the U.S. Department of Justice for mortgage fraud.”
All of the officials Pulte has referred to the Justice Department have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
“I can confirm that GAO accepted this request following our standard process,” a GAO spokesperson told NBC News.
“The first thing GAO does when beginning any work is determine the full scope of what we will cover and the methodology that will be used,” the spokesperson added. “This may take a few months and until this is done we cannot provide any estimate on the completion date.
The FHFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pulte has repeatedly faced questions about how the mortgage documents it used in its references came to light. In an exchange on CNBC in September, Pulte said he received a “sip” but declined to reveal where it came from.
“I’m not going to explain our sources and methods,” he said at the time. “We make referrals almost every day. Lisa Cook turned out to be one of them.”
Since becoming FHFA director, Pulte has used what is normally a little-noticed role to become an outspoken critic of several Democratic elected officials whom President Donald Trump has attacked, as well as a governor and the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates quickly enough. Cook is a Federal Reserve governor who was appointed to the central bank board by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Pulte was one of the few officials who accompanied the president on a July visit to the Federal Reserve headquarters, an active construction site while the historic buildings are under renovation.
Pulte has also used social media to echo Trump’s attacks on the central bank chief and his board.
In August, Trump decided to fire Cook. In a letter published in Truth Social, Trump cited a referral from Pulte to Attorney General Pam Bondi. The case will now be heard by the Supreme Court in January.
This is a development history. Please check back for updates.
