Pulte scrutinized Attorney General Blanche's mortgage records, sources say

Pulte’s lawyer denies he reviewed the attorney general’s mortgage files

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte examined the mortgage records of Attorney General Todd Blanche last year as the two men clashed over Pulte’s referrals of mortgage-fraud allegations against several of President Trump’s political adversaries, according to people familiar with the matter.

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

In referral letters to the Justice Department, Pulte wrote that his determinations were based on a review of documents including mortgage records, citing his authority as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte referred allegations of mortgage fraud against Schiff, James and Cook.

A lawyer for Pulte denied that he examined or reviewed Blanche’s mortgage files, calling the statement false. Representatives for FHFA and the Justice Department said the story was an attempt to drive a wedge between Blanche and Pulte.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said Blanche had only one mortgage on his home in Florida. “He is a cosigner of a loan on a home owned by his son, as are many parents across America,” the spokeswoman said.

Blanche and his top aides later reviewed Blanche’s mortgage records and determined there were no issues with the paperwork, according to some of the people familiar. Blanche had disclosed on his government ethics paperwork that he cosigned his son’s mortgage to help him buy his own home.

Around the time Pulte is said to have scrutinized Blanche’s mortgages, the Justice Department was investigating whether some Trump administration officials, including Pulte, had inappropriately shared information about the Justice Department’s investigation into Schiff with people not authorized to be part of it, the Wall Street Journal previously reported. Neither the probe of Schiff nor the leak inquiry has resulted in charges. A lawyer for Schiff has previously called the mortgage fraud allegations baseless and politically motivated.

Pulte has clashed with other White House officials who view him as a “brash operator who swerves way outside of his lane” to please Trump in ways that are often politically hurtful, according to the people familiar with the matter. Trump has said he values Pulte’s loyalty and has resisted pressure from some administration officials to oust him. Trump tapped Pulte to serve as interim director of national intelligence, but senators made clear they would not confirm him, citing his lack of national security experience. Pulte often travels with Trump on weekends and has been spotted carrying construction-site drawings and poster boards with ideas for the president, administration officials said.

Pulte still runs the FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed firms that buy most Americans’ home loans from issuing banks. Internal investigators at Fannie Mae began examining allegations from internal complaints that senior officials had directed staff to access the mortgage documents of James and others, the Wall Street Journal reported last November. Pulte then removed the investigators from their posts.

Pulte has declined to specify where he obtained the mortgage information. In an April 2025 letter referring James for prosecution, Pulte cited “media reports” as providing an initial tip. In a letter referring Cook to the Justice Department dated Aug. 15, 2025, he cited “mortgage documents obtained by” FHFA. When a journalist at Bloomberg later that week asked how he obtained the records, Pulte said: “Those are public documents. Anybody, who, frankly, can do some research with Google, and get to county websites, can easily find these documents.”

Prosecutors tried to use Pulte’s information to pursue a case against James, but a judge and a grand jury rejected the effort. James has denied wrongdoing. The Supreme Court in June blocked Trump’s initial effort to use Pulte’s allegations to fire Cook, though it left open the possibility for Trump to pursue her removal through a more formal process. Last month, a lawyer for Cook wrote in a letter to the White House that the allegations against Cook were unfounded.