Ranking Member Raskin Opens Probe into Abuse of Federal Housing Finance Agency to Target Trump’s Political Enemies

Washington, D.C. (September 9, 2025)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to William Pulte, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), demanding answers regarding his abuse of the agency to exact political retribution on behalf of President Donald Trump, including abusing his agency’s access to personal financial information to target prominent enemies of the President with unsubstantiated claims of mortgage fraud.                

“Your decision to use the FHFA to selectively—and publicly—investigate and target the President’s designated political enemies gives rise to the unmistakable impression that you have been improperly coordinating with the White House to launch these probes. It appears that you are using FHFA to conduct deep-sea fishing expeditions of Americans’ personal financial information, apparently with help from Peter Thiel’s data company, Palantir, to deliver artificial intelligence-aided opposition research reports on officials who have held Trump accountable in some way or potentially stand in the way of his complete takeover of the independent Federal Reserve Board. While it is unclear exactly who ordered these specific records to be pulled, and on what basis, the roster of the individuals you have chosen to target and publicly refer to DOJ inescapably suggests that your overarching purpose is to punish and smear critics of President Trump,” wrote Ranking Member Raskin. 

The FHFA was created in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis to safeguard the housing market and ensure that all Americans have access to affordable housing. Under the Trump Administration, however, the FHFA has abandoned its historic mission of addressing the housing affordability crisis and is instead focused on generating partisan and pretextual investigations on behalf of the President. 

Under the leadership of Director Pulte—a Trump loyalist who has donated millions to Trump—the FHFA has publicly referred three prominent public officials to the DOJ for alleged mortgage fraud. The targets of FHFA’s unsubstantiated probes include Senator Adam Schiff and N.Y. State Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom President Trump has previously expressed his desire to “arrest” and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook—who stands in the way of President Trump and full control of the Federal Reserve Board. 

The appearance of bias and vindictive investigation is heightened by the manner in which Director Pulte publicized his allegations. Abandoning standard confidentiality procedures, Director Pulte made his referrals personally and aggressively publicized them online and on Fox News. Just ten days after Director Pulte promoted his allegations and pressured Governor Cook to resign, President Trump illegally fired her based solely on his unsubstantiated public referral. Despite Director Pulte’s constant posting about these investigations, he has also refused to answer basic questions about how these inquiries started and why only prominent enemies of the President have been singled out for public referrals.

“Perhaps most troubling, you have proven unwilling or unable to answer even basic questions about the process behind these referrals, vaguely reporting you received a ‘tip’ about Governor Cook but refusing to state that the tip did not come from the Administration itself or from an ally of the President. The American people have a right to understand why FHFA is reviewing decades-old mortgages, which individuals you have requested files for, and whether normal processes have been followed at all. Above all, the American people have a right to understand why, in the midst of a housing affordability crisis, the FHFA Director is primarily concerned with investigating the President’s enemies rather than with reducing housing costs for millions of anxious Americans,” said Ranking Member Raskin.

Ranking Member Raskin demanded Director Pulte provide to the Committee all records related to mortgage investigations under the Trump Administration; the use of artificial intelligence to identify mortgage fraud; and all communications between the agency and the White House related to the investigation of public officials.

Click here to read the letter.