In recent weeks, the administration of President Donald Trump has addressed Democratic officials about the accusations of mortgage fraud, a new front in an effort to undermine critics.
The last one arrived on Wednesday, when Trump, who has been very critical of the interest rates of the Federal Reserve, published on his social platform of truth that the governor of the Lisa Cook Federal Reserve “must resign, now!”
His position occurred after Williamuffa, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, alleged in a letter to the Attorney General Pam Bondi that Cook, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, “falsified bank documents and properties records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially mortgage fraud.” The fucking letter said Cook falsified its residence states for its properties in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Atlanta.
The measure followed the recent efforts addressed to Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat of California, who was an outstanding figure in Trump’s accusation, and the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, who successfully demanded Trump and his company successfully so they were bank loans and insurance policies that would not have been able to obtain. (A judge granted the office of James more than $ 300 million in the case, an amount that has since been more than $ 500 million with interest. Trump has described the case “a fraud for me” and is appealing the sentence).
This month, NBC News reported that Bondi appointed Ed Martin, a conservative and former interim prosecutor of the United States for Washington, DC, as a “special lawyer” to investigate accusations of mortgage fraud against Schiff and James. At that time, a senior police officer told NBC News that a large jury in Virginia will investigate the accusations against James, while a large jury in Maryland will assume the accusations of Schiff. Trump had asked both officials to be prosecuted for the accusations.
Schiff, James and now Cook have denied having acted badly. The White House sent questions to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which declined to comment.
Making an accusation of mortgage fraud has long been a common tactic in opposition investigation into political campaigns.
A veteran of the Republican campaign told NBC News that looking for inconsistencies in which candidates declare their “primary” residences is one of the first tasks for opposition researchers. It is a relevant problem for elected officials that divide their time between their origin states and Washington. This person said that it is a frequent problem in campaigns on both sides, and the penalty tends to be a fine, not in jail.
Last year, Senator Angela Alsobrooks, D-MD., Then candidate for the position, faced an invoice of $ 47,000 in Washington, DC, after she discovered that she missed the property tax credits that she claimed incorrectly in a house she had rented.
“It is careless,” said this person. “But I don’t think we had anyone ruining their life in this. He simply looked bad.”
Now, the Trump administration is giving such accusations against the special attention of the Democrats.
At the same time, Associated Press reported that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Trump ally who runs for the Senate, and his wife, Angela, made inaccurate statements about mortgage requests that claimed that three separate properties were each of his main residence. The Trump administration has not said if Paxton is under a similar investigation.
In a letter to Martin on Monday, James’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the possible inconsistency in compliance actions.
“In particular, absent from his mandate is Kenneth Paxton (Texas Republican Attorney General). Given that the same news reports raise questions about Mrs. James and Mr. Schiff have reported that, in some way, Mr. Paxton has three different properties that claims to be his” main residence “, seems to indicate his title really,” special assistant for the mortar. [Alleged Against Democrats Adverse to President Trump]”, Wrote.
Antote said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday that the probes of the administration of the accusations of mortgage fraud were free of political considerations.
“We will see any accusation of mortgage fraud,” he said. “And we don’t care if he is a republican, Democrat. We don’t care if he is rich. We don’t care if he is a prosecutor. We don’t care if he is a governor of the Fed, if he commits mortgage fraud and presents an existential threat to federal banks of mortgage loans, fannie or Freddie, we will process it, period.”
Cook, the first black woman to serve at the Board of Governors of the Fed, said in a statement on Wednesday that he knew about the news reports that About had made a criminal reference against her “based on a mortgage request four years ago, before joining the Federal Reserve.”
“I have no intention of being intimidated to stop my position due to some questions raised in a tweet,” he said. “I intend to take any question about my financial history as a member of the Federal Reserve, so I am collecting the precise information to answer any legitimate question and provide the facts.”
Later, on Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a mass democrat, said the episode was equivalent to the last example of the Trump administration that tries to press the Federal Reserve.
“For a long time I have been a defender to hold Fed officials responsible,” said Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, in a statement. “But anyone can see that for months, President Trump has been fighting for a pretext to intimidate or the president of Powell fires and the members of the Federal Reserve Board while blaming anyone who is not himself for how their failed economic policies are hurting the Americans. The president and his administration should not put the federal government to illegally say goodbye to the members of the Board of the independent Feds.”
