The Trump administration has been working hard to gin up some sort of criminal charges against Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, settling on the now-familiar approach of declaring that he committed mortgage fraud.
Except it looks a lot like there is not actually any fraud.
Instrumental in all of this harassment is Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s loyal attack dog who somehow always finds fraud committed by the person Trump is targeting.
Pulte is arguably one of the worst people in this administration, a slumlord who got his job by sucking up to Trump on X. But he’s proven to be extremely morally flexible, which is always an advantage in the Trump administration.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte
Earlier this month, Pulte made a criminal referral to the Justice Department about Swalwell’s alleged mortgage fraud. The next step in this familiar dance would be to find a malleable U.S. attorney and hope they can get an indictment, just like they did with former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Well, on second thought, not quite like Comey and James, since both of those indictments were just thrown out.
But Swalwell isn’t going to wait around to go through the process of having Washington U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro invent probable cause to secure a criminal indictment, though Pirro has set a land-speed record for the most grand jury no-bills, and her trials aren’t going so hot either.
Instead, Swalwell sued Pulte and the FHFA.
First, Swalwell’s complaint tackles Pulte’s allegation that he claimed Washington residence so he could get better loan rates. Except that there’s a sworn affidavit attached to the mortgage agreement for that home saying that it’s his wife’s primary residence.
So annoying when facts get in the way of your vindictive prosecutions, right?
Swalwell also says that the criminal referral violates the First Amendment because he is clearly being targeted for his political speech, which makes Trump mad. As much as Trump would like it to be otherwise, it is not a crime to speak out against him.
Finally, Swalwell says that Pulte’s rummaging through mortgage records violates the Privacy Act of 1974, which severely limits the use and sharing of government data—thus requiring a written request from the DOJ to FHFA justifying the request. It also requires the government to notify the person whose data is being flung around. You will not be surprised to learn that neither of these things happened here.
What Swalwell’s complaint really highlights is that his criminal referral is essentially identical to those of nearly everyone else the administration has targeted—all fueled by vague, nebulous, and incorrect mortgage fraud allegations. It was the basis for indicting James, and it’s the basis of Trump’s efforts to force Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to step down.
Former FBI Director James Comey, who was also targeted by a sham mortgage fraud charge from the Trump administration.
It’s also the basis for the desperate attempt to indict Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, which got so shambolic that Pulte and U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin are apparently cold-calling and messaging strangers to find a way to criminally charge Schiff.
Pulte is studiously ignoring the fact that there are several Trump Cabinet members with the same arrangements that he alleges are fraudulent—at least when Democrats do it. He’s also ignoring the fact that his mother and stepfather committed a little light fraud by declaring two homestead exemptions, which saved them a cool $158,000 in taxes in 2025.
Too bad that when this story surfaced, Michigan tax officials declared that they would immediately revoke the homestead exemption and issue revised tax bills, including all penalties and interest. Probably not the outcome Pulte had in mind.
Plenty of other high-level administration officials also have similar mortgage arrangements, but it’s only fraud if Democrats do it, silly.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent need not worry that he has declared two primary residences. And Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer can rest easy knowing that Pulte will not come after her for her two primary residence mortgages that she got back-to-back very quickly. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy won’t get jammed up with criminal charges for his two primary residences. And EPA Director Lee Zeldin certainly won’t get in any trouble for his two residences either.
It’s not entirely clear how successful Swalwell’s suit will be, but bravo to him for trying.
