In a furious rebuttal to allegations that he criminally misrepresented facts in his mortgage documents, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) on Tuesday sued Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, accusing him of criminally misusing government databases to baselessly attack President Trump's political opponents.
“Pulte abused his position by searching the databases of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—two government-sponsored enterprises—for private mortgage loan records of several prominent Democrats,” Swalwell’s lawyers wrote in the federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. “He then used these recordings to fabricate bizarre mortgage fraud charges, which he submitted to the Department of Justice for prosecution.”
They said Pulte launched his attack on Swalwell at a particularly inopportune time, as did Swalwell. launches his campaign for governor of California.
Pulte's attack, Swalwell's lawyers wrote, “was not only a gross distortion of reality” but also a “gross abuse of power that violated the law,” impinging on Swalwell's free speech right to criticize the president without fear of reprisal and violating the Privacy Act of 1974, which they said prohibits federal officials from “using access to citizens' private information as a tool to harm their political opponents.”
Pulte, FHFA and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Pulte has previously defended his work examining the mortgage documents of prominent Democrats, saying no one is above the law. His recommendations were aimed squarely at Democrats, despite reports that Republicans were taking similar action on their mortgages.
Swalwell's lawsuit is the latest blowback to Pulte's campaign and part of growing scrutiny of its unprecedented nature and unorthodox methods – not only from the targets of his investigations, but also from other investigators, according to one witness.
In addition to Swalwell, Pulte referred mortgage fraud charges to the Justice Department against Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James and Federal Reserve Chair Lisa Cook, who all deny wrongdoing and believe the charges amount to little more than political retaliation.
James was criminally charged by an inexperienced and loyalist federal prosecutor specially appointed by Trump in Virginia, although a judge has since dismissed the case on the grounds that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was appointed illegally. The judge also dismissed the case against former FBI Director James Comey, another Trump opponent.
Cook's lawyers criticized Pulte in a letter to the Justice Department, writing that his “decision to use FHFA to selectively—and publicly—investigate and prosecute designated political enemies of the President gives rise to the unmistakable impression that he improperly coordinated with the White House to fabricate unreliable predicates to launch these investigations.”
Schiff also criticized Trump and Pulte for their attacks on him and other Democrats and welcomed the dismissal of the cases against James and Comey, calling it a “triumph for the rule of law.”
In recent days, federal prosecutors in Maryland, where Schiff is being investigated, have also begun asking questions about the actions of Pulte and other Trump officials, according to Christine Bish, a Sacramento-area real estate agent and Republican congressional candidate who was called to Maryland to answer questions about the case last week.
Pulte argued that Schiff violated the law by claiming the mortgage's primary residence in both Maryland and California. Schiff said he never broke any laws and was always upfront with his mortgage lenders.
Bish has been investigating Schiff's mortgage records since 2020 and has filed documents about Schiff with the federal government multiple times — first with the Office of Congressional Ethics, then earlier this year with the FHFA hotline and with the FBI, she told The Times.
When Trump subsequently posted one of Schiff's mortgage documents on his Truth Social platform, Bish said she believed it was the document she filed with the FHFA and FBI because it was highlighted the same way she highlighted it. She then saw that she had missed a call from Pulte, and Pulte staff later asked her to email Pulte the “complete case” she had prepared on Schiff.
“They wanted to make sure I sent the entire file,” Bish said.
Bish said she was subsequently interviewed via Google Meet on Oct. 22 by someone from the FHFA inspector general's office and an FBI agent. She then received a subpoena in the mail that she interpreted required her to appear in Maryland last week. There, she was questioned again for about an hour by the same official from the inspector general's office and another FBI agent, she said, and was surprised that their questions seemed more focused on her interactions with people in the federal government than on Schiff.
“They wanted to know if I was talking to anyone else,” she said. “Do you know what I talked to? Who did I talk to?”
Schiff's office declined to comment. However, Schiff's lawyer previously told Justice Department officials they had “sufficient cause” launch an investigation into Pulte and his campaign targeting Trump's opponents, calling it a “highly irregular” and “dirty” effort.
The acting FHFA inspector general at the time of initial contact with Bish, Joe Allen, has since been fired, which also raised questions.
On November 19, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote a letter Pulte denounced his investigations as politically motivated, questioned Allen's firing and demanded documentation from Pulte, including any communications he had with the White House.
Swalwell's lawyers wrote in the filing Tuesday that he never claimed a primary residence in either California or Washington, D.C., as alleged, and did not violate any laws.
They accused Pulte of orchestrating a coordinated effort to spread allegations against Swalwell through a vast network of conservative influencers, which they said was “damaging.” [Swalwell’s] reputation at a critical point in his career: just as he was planning to announce his campaign for governor of California.”
They said the “widespread publication of information about the home where his wife and young children live” also “exposed him to an increased security risk and caused him significant distress and suffering.”
Swalwell said in a statement that Pulte “reviewed the private records of political opponents” to “silence them,” which should not be allowed to happen.
“There’s a reason why the First Amendment — freedom of speech — stands above all others,” he said.
