California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff is drawing new scrutiny after New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted on Thursday.
James was charged Thursday by a federal grand jury in Virginia on allegations of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, allegations that prosecutors say allowed her to obtain nearly $19,000 in savings on a loan for a second home, according to the Department of Justice.
The indictment was issued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the same court where former FBI Director James Comey was indicted on September 25 on charges of making false statements to Congress and obstruction of justice.
“No one is above the law. The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust,” US Attorney Lindsey Halligan said in a statement. “The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
James also responded after the charges were announced.
“This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State Attorney General,” she said.
“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost,” she added. “The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties.”
In 2018 during her first campaign for attorney general, James ran on a platform to ‘get’ President Trump. She would later charge him and his company with financial fraud in a civil lawsuit filed in 2022. The suit accused Trump and the Trump Organization of inflating the value of their assets to defraud lenders and insurers.
Now that James has been charged, all eyes are on Schiff, who has also been criminally referred to the Justice Dept. for alleged mortgage fraud.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland is conducting the investigation, which could lead to charges . The development follows reports from a month earlier that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) had submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, accusing Schiff of falsifying bank documents and property records on multiple occasions to secure more favorable loan terms, Fox reported.
In a 2011 affidavit, then-Congressman Adam Schiff certified that a property located in Montgomery County, Maryland, was his primary residence.
Schiff also owns a condominium in Burbank, California, which he listed as his primary residence as recently as 2023 while campaigning for the U.S. Senate.
In May, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche outlining alleged misconduct by Schiff.
“Based on media reports, Mr. Adam B. Schiff has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property,” FHFA Director William Pulte wrote in the letter.
“As regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, we take very seriously allegations of mortgage fraud or other criminal activity. Such misconduct jeopardizes the safety and soundness of FHFA’s regulated entities and the security and stability of the U.S. mortgage market,” Pulte noted further.
Pulte later received a memo from Fannie Mae’s financial crimes investigations unit alleging that Schiff engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” involving five Fannie Mae-backed loans.
According to the letter, Schiff and his wife purchased a home in Potomac, Md., in 2003 for $870,000. They secured a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage for $610,000 with a 30-year term at an interest rate of 5.625%, claiming the property would serve as their primary and principal residence.
The letter states that Schiff and his wife repeatedly affirmed the Maryland property as their primary residence in mortgage refinancing documents filed in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013—even as Schiff was serving as a congressman from California.
