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Open in TheBrain

Pulte Bill Fhfa

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SEE DOJ 3 ED FUCKING MARTIN

SEE BIG LIE GOP STEAL ELECTION

ROGER STONE DNI FUCKERY

SEE LAWFARE TRUMP

MERRI OK

note fhha pulte going after schiff tish on mort fraud and fed bd but no paxton 3x

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HIS PARENTS DID MORT FRAUD?

MMA

Roger Stone pushed for Trump to bring “longtime friend” Bill Pulte into his administration – and now wants the acting DNI to investigate “that 2020 election”

07/08/26

an 7 26

Former intelligence officials are demanding answers about an alleged CIA document used by President Donald Trump to promote his election denial claims. According to officials, this “weird” document appears to have been “tailor made” for Trump rather than adhering to normal agency procedure. According to MSNOW, these officials “think the public should know when and why it was written, and who requested it.”

The matter involves a CIA note on the People’s Republic of China entitled “Sensitive PRC Reporting from 2018 – 2020.” As MSNOW explained, “The date is redacted, and it is unclear where within the CIA it originated. Trump quoted directly from the three-page document in his speech when citing debunked claims that the intelligence community withheld information from him about China, and called on the Justice Department to ‘fire those involved in the cover-up’ and ‘file criminal charges if appropriate.’”

Former officials, however, have raised alarms that the document appears to be “raw intelligence all supporting a single view — alleging that China wanted Trump to lose the 2020 election and sought to influence the outcome — without including the full scope, context or any definitive conclusion from the agency’s information. The Trump administration, the officials said, should answer whether the document was drafted in response to a narrowly tailored request from someone within the administration, noting that to do so with the purpose of supporting Trump’s accusations about the security of America’s elections would be a clear politicization of the country’s intelligence community.”

According to a Democratic lawmaker with national security oversight, there are many questions about the document, a list of which will be sent to the CIA. For example, “the document does not show traditional accountability markers, such as authorship and footnotes, and the high degree of confidence expressed in the document is unusual.” Six former CIA and intelligence officials agreed that the CIA and White House should answer questions.

“The fact that the document presented only one viewpoint and appeared to be crafted in response to a narrow query should be investigated, the former officials said,” explained MSNOW. “The Steady State, a group of former national security and intelligence officials, is calling for an independent investigation by key congressional committees and the inspectors general for the intelligence community and CIA. Steven Cash, executive director of The Steady State and a former CIA and Department of Homeland Security official, is sending a letter Tuesday to top lawmakers on the intelligence committees and agency watchdog offices, detailing key ‘anomalies’ in the document.”

The Steady State concluded that the document “departs in both style and format” from CIA drafting norms and does not have caveats typical of CIA analysis. One former official called it “weird,” saying it “doesn’t read like a finished product.” According to former CIA analyst Julie Curlee, the document looks recently generated and “tailor made.” As she explains, “Released under CIA letterhead, but with its author and publication date redacted, it has all the hallmarks of a memo built to serve the president’s political needs and the intelligence community’s authority turned against the American public.”

“Was this done to placate Trump?” another former senior intelligence official wondered.

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CNBC

Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte has begun a new spate of firings within the ranks of the U.S. intelligence community, MS Now reported on Friday.

Pulte, whom President Donald Trump tapped as acting spy chief in June, sent out notices of termination on Thursday to dozens of intelligence officials, MS Now reported, citing an intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

The intelligence official told MS Now that the Trump administration was removing officials “who they believe are deep state” and who have allegedly failed to provide complete pictures of available intelligence.

The White House and the office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

CNN first reported last month that Pulte had eliminated several political appointees who served under Tulsi Gabbard, the former director of national intelligence who announced her resignation in May.

Trump reportedly said in early June that he wanted Pulte to “start the process” offiring large numbers of DNI employees. The office of DNI oversees 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency.

The president’s decision to tap Pulte has drawn sharp bipartisan criticism from members of Congress.

Pulte, who also serves as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has used his perch to investigate opponentsof Trump’s for alleged mortgage fraud.

Amid congressional opposition to Pulte, Trump in June announced that Jay Clayton, the current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was his permanent pick for DNI.

The Senate attempted to fast-track Clayton’s bid, scheduling a confirmation hearing for June 17. But Trump scuttled the effort, instructing Clayton not to attend in a Truth Social post hours before the hearing and stating that Pulte would remain acting DNI in the interim.

Pulte assumed the interim role on June 19, gaining access to the most sensitive U.S. intelligence data.

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GGL 7 26

AI Overview

Conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer has been collaborating with Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte on sweeping purges of the intelligence community. Loomer targets officials she claims belong to the "Deep State," which has resulted in the firing of numerous high-ranking intelligence staffers. [1, 2, 3, 4]

The Purge Details:

Ongoing fallout:

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AN 7 26

Everything that came before President Donald Trump is dumb, he thinks, according to journalist and author Fred Kaplan.

In a recent piece for *The iPaper*, Kaplan called out Trump's aversion to pre-history.

"The modern presidents before him were stupid (his vice president, JD Vance, quipped at the start of the bombing raid on Iran that the predecessors got stuck in Middle East wars because, unlike Trump, they were 'dumb') and expertise is a myth," wrote Kaplan.

He cited a few of Trump's statements on the matter, claiming “I know more about ISIS than the generals do,” “Nobody knows more about trade than me,” “I know more about drones than anybody” and “My primary consultant is myself, and I have a good instinct about this stuff."

It has changed his second term from relying on experts to expelling them. For Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, it means that many top military leaders who have dedicated their lives to service aren't being promoted. Secretary of State Marco Rubio fired 1,350 officials around the world. Trump still hasn't managed to get ambassadors to more than 100 embassies.

Trump's cuts have come closer to home, said Kaplan, with inexperienced national security staff now at the helm, cutting crucial jobs. Typically, the National Security Council staff writes position papers with other agency staff to take a whole-of-government approach on the matter.

"In most administrations, especially since the 1960s, this really is how national security policy is made. Sometimes it prolongs the process, to the frustration of some, but often, the complexity of the issues requires time and trouble," Kaplan explained. "Trump’s White House does none of this. He has cut the NSC staff by half and told the survivors that their task is not to bring him analysis or advice but rather to implement what he has decided to do. And when it comes to making foreign policy, there isn’t a Trump Administration in the usual sense of the term; there’s Trump and a handful of his cronies who parrot whatever he says – if they want to keep their jobs."

While the National Security Advisor is a full-time position, Rubio is serving in the role in addition to his own post as secretary of state. His deputy has no experience in national security, but he was the chief of staff to the president of the far-right Heritage Foundation.

Kaplan noted that when Trump was making his decisions on Iran, the experts weren't brought together to discuss scenarios, optics or even options. It was the inner circle of people who was with him, wrote Maggie Habermann and Jonathan Swan in their new book Regime Change.

"Trump presented a highly optimistic scenario based on assurances by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had tried to persuade the previous three presidents to attack Iran," Kaplan wrote. "Trump said Netanyahu’s plan sounded good to him. End of discussion."

Now, after appointing an inexperienced acting director of national intelligence whose job was to "clean house," the stability of the U.S. national security apparatus is in question.

"It’s a good question whether a future president can rebuild the institutions and guardrails that might have impeded such a mindless epochal calamity," Kaplan closed. "But we can hope that successors learn at least one lesson from Trump’s repeated disasters – that those institutions and guardrails were put in place for a reason, and as much as the world has changed since then, the reason is still valid."

REF JUN 23

The large-scale cuts that President Donald Trump’s acting director of national intelligence had been considering imposing at his own office started on Monday, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

“The deep state firings have begun,” the source said, declining to give details on how many jobs had been cut.

Several political appointees who were considered close to the prior director Tulsi Gabbard were among the first to be fired, multiple sources told CNN. One of the sources said some of those people had already been walked out of the building as of Tuesday.

Sources had previously told CNN that Bill Pulte, Trump’s pick to serve as director of national intelligence in an acting capacity, was looking at cutting hundreds of jobs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Last week, Pulte showed up to his new job a day early after asking for a list of every employee in the office, sources told CNN, catching even outgoing director Tulsi Gabbard off-guard.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and the National Counterintelligence and Security Center were expected to be hit hard by the cuts. However, on Tuesday, the first source said the NCTC had not been impacted by the firings.

All offices were asked to provide a list ranking their personnel by Monday, according to two sources familiar with the matter, who associated the request with Pulte’s mandate to carry out mass firings.

The firings came as top Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees sent a letter on Monday to Pulte warning him of the risks of making large cuts to the workforce.

Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes wrote, “We are concerned by reports that you intend to fire or place on leave hundreds of Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) officers as soon as this week.”

“While there is room to consider responsible reductions to ODNI’s workforce, any large cuts would follow on a substantial downsizing that has already occurred in 2025 and risk jeopardizing the mission of an organization explicitly created after 9/11 to prevent any future such terrorist attack,” the lawmakers wrote.

They continued, “Given your lack of experience within the Intelligence Community, it is difficult to imagine that in such a short amount of time you have already developed fully informed views as to how to shrink ODNI without incurring risks to national security. Making significant structural changes to ODNI, to include a reduction in force, is not an appropriate course of action for anyone in an acting capacity, let alone without consultation with Congress, and you should refrain from doing so.”

When asked about the firings, a White House official pointed to Trump’s recent post on Truth Social in which he telegraphed “downsizing” in the office.

“I have named William Pulte to be Acting Director of National Intelligence, who will take over on June 19th, and have asked him to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies,” Trump wrote.

CNN has reached out to ODNI for comment.

Pulte was in the Oval Office as Trump signed executive orders on Monday. When he showed up to work a day early last week, he met with lawyers and staffers.

As director of national intelligence, Pulte oversees 18 intelligence agencies. His appointment irked some of Trump’s closest advisers and allies and caused significant consternation on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers raced to try to confirm Jay Clayton, now the US attorney in Manhattan, to the position permanently, only to have Trump abruptly end Clayton’s participation in a confirmation hearing.

Trump has previously said he wanted Pulte in the role only temporarily, but it is unclear how long that might be. Gabbard had used the post in part to hunt for evidence of voter fraud around the 2020 election that Trump lost, and some fear Pulte will escalate those efforts.

When she served in the post, Gabbard had dozens of photos of herself posted throughout the corridors of the DNI offices in northern Virginia. Two sources told CNN those photos had all been removed as of Monday. The photos were shot by her husband, who is a photographer.

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REF JUN 5

President Donald Trump reportedly said Friday that he wants incoming acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to “start the process” of firing large numbers of employees in the DNI’s office.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump, in an interview, said those firings would be part of a shake-up of the U.S. intelligence community. The office of DNI oversees 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency.

Trump’s comments are certain to further roil members of Congress, including Republican senators, who have already criticized the president’s appointment of Pulte earlier this week to replace outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard on an acting basis.

Trump said Thursday that Pulte is “not going to be permanent” in the role.

Trump, while flying on Air Force One to Wisconsin on Friday, was asked by reporters who is under consideration for the permanent DNI slot.

“I have five interviews, and we’ll have a very good person watching things,” he said.

Pulte, who has no intelligence agency experience, will continue to serve as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency until Trump nominates another person to be DNI.

Trump had told Pulte that he believes the DNI’s office is “unnecessary and or too big,” the Journal reported Friday, quoting the president’s characterization of that discussion.

″‘I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,’ Trump said, pointing to holdovers from the Biden and Obama administrations,” the newspaper reported.

When Trump reentered the White House for a second term in January 2025, the DNI’s office had about 1,800 employees, according to Federal News Network.

After being confirmed by the Senate as DNI, Gabbard cut nearly 30% of the office’s staff, the office said in a fact sheet issued in August 2025, which detailed her plans to make further reductions in head count.

Trump told the Journal he wants Pulte to “start the process” of trimming DNI office staff, and that his eventual nominee for DNI should continue that effort.

While Pulte’s lack of obvious practical experience for the DNI has been a major source of concern for critics of his appointment, another factor has been his aggressiveness in targeting people who have angered Trump.

Pulte last year made criminal referrals of alleged mortgage fraud against New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

A criminal indictment in Virginia federal court against James in connection with alleged mortgage fraud was dismissed last year by a judge who ruled that U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan, who had been handpicked by Trump to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, had been invalidly appointed.

James has denied wrongdoing and said she was targeted because she successfully sued Trump in New York state court in a case alleging business fraud.

Trump last summer sought to fire Cook, citing Pulte’s allegations, which she denies. Cook, who angered Trump by refusing to vote for interest rate cuts he demanded, has remained at the Fed pending a decision by the Supreme Court on whether the president can fire her for his purported reason.

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RAW

President Donald Trump's controversial new intelligence chief is clearing house, and career officers warn the man swinging the axe doesn't know what he's cutting.

Bill Pulte, Trump's loyal acting director of national intelligence, began notifying dozens of intelligence officials of their terminations Thursday, part of a downsizing Trump ordered when he installed Pulte at the office two weeks ago, MS NOW reported Friday. An intelligence official, who spoke anonymously citing fear of reprisal, told the outlet that leadership is targeting workers it believes are "deep state" and accused them of failing to hand up a complete picture of available intelligence.

But former officials aren't buying his rationale.

Several told MS NOW they had never heard of intelligence officers withholding information from their superiors.

"The premise is absurd," one said. Another questioned how Pulte, who ran the federal housing agency and has no intelligence background, could reach such a conclusion within days of arriving.

“I have a real question of how he would know this. This isn’t a guy who is familiar with intelligence,” a former official told the outlet. “How is he going to get to the bottom of this and rely on any information with a matter of fidelity? It would be like me taking over a hospital and firing dozens of surgeons in a matter of days.”

The cuts follow Pulte's earlier removal of six political appointees who served under his predecessor, Tulsi Gabbard. His arrival has drawn alarm across party lines: he took the post without ever holding a security clearance, and he can stay in the acting role past November's midterms under federal vacancy rules. Critics note his office doesn't collect intelligence of its own, relying instead on the CIA, the NSA and more than a dozen other agencies to supply it.

Democrats and some Republicans fear the purge is less about efficiency than about clearing out analysts who might resist Trump's election claims. The ODNI says it is providing "elite, apolitical intelligence that keeps America safe."

Laura Loomer Claims: Right-wing commentator Laura Loomer alleged on social media that Gabbard's former Chief of Staff, Alexa Henning, had also been fired. However, reporters from outlets like MS Now and independent fact-checkers countered that it was a mutual transition, as Pulte brought in his own chief of staff. [1, 2]

GUK

Several staff members have reportedly been fired from the US office of the director of national intelligence (DNI), multiple outlets have reported. These firings come less than a week after Donald Trump appointed Bill Pulte as the acting director after former director Tulsi Gabbard announced she was leaving the post in late May.

According to CNN, which was first to report the firings on Monday, political appointees with ties to Gabbard were among those purged. ABC News reported that cuts to the National Terrorism Center were expected to be particularly large.

CBS reported on Tuesday that more than 50 career and political staff members had been dismissed, with six individuals fired and 45 “sent back to their home agencies”.

The DNI has not responded to the Guardian’s request for comment on the reported firings.

CNN first reported that Pulte, who also leads the federal housing finance agency, was considering the dismissal of hundreds of staff members on 19 June on the same day he assumed the role of acting director.

On Monday, Representative James Himes and Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees, respectively, sent a letter to Pulte to voice their concerns about Pulte making substantive changes to the DNI, including firing hundreds of people, without consulting Congress.

“Any large cuts would follow on a substantial downsizing that has already occurred in 2025 and risk jeopardizing the mission of an organization explicitly created after 9/11 to prevent any future such terrorist attack,” the letter reads.

Pulte also faced skepticism from the Republican senator Thom Tillis, whotold reporters on Tuesday that Pulte should conduct an analysis at the DNI and “only [eliminate] the people whose jobs can be either automated or never should have been there”.

“My guess is based on his past experience, it’s going to be another hot, steaming pile of Doge shit,” Tillis, who is retiring, continued. “I think he’s an incompetent sycophant and not the right person to lead DNI, and you’re undermining ultimately what the confirmed administrator should be doing.

AN 7 26

Reports have surfaced over the past several weeks about intelligence experts being fired from their posts working with the Director of National Intelligence. Now, it turns out he's firing people outside of his purview as well.

MS NOW reporter Vaughn Hillyard told the network that initially, the firings were focused on political appointees, but now the analysts themselves believe these new firings are the big next step in cleaning house.

Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte was the initial nominee, but Trump withdrew his name from consideration. The second nominee he stopped from testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Trump said he wanted Pulte to clean house first.

Pulte "could expect to serve in this capacity for several months while another individual whom [Trump] has put forward as a nominee for the full-time position goes through a confirmation process," said Hillyard.

When Trump said he would nominate Pulte, there was a huge backlash from lawmakers, including Republicans, saying that they would fight the nomination. The Federal Vacancies Reform Act gives a 210-day limit to acting officials in Senate-confirmed positions.

Among the first acts Pulte took before his first day was to demand a list of people to be fired.

"Those individuals are the ones [who] are being terminated," said Hillyard. "These are not just political appointees, but these are career officials."

Senators have expressed hefty concern over the past several weeks, fearful that Pulte will weaken national security because he has little understanding of the agency or intelligence in general.

"I am told by an intelligence official who is remaining anonymous out of fear of reprisal," that these firings will continue. "I am told that there are individuals who they claim are, 'Part of the deep state, withholding information related to intelligence that has been requested by leadership at the DNI'," Hillyard reported.

Hillyard, working with MS NOW's David Rhode, said that it's important to understand the context and that intelligence officials within the office have never heard of anything like this happening with the DNI or any of the 15 other agencies, including the CIA. Career officials simply don't withhold requested information.

"I'm told by one official that the terminations are happening out of a belief by leadership at the DNI, including from Bill Pulte, that those [who] are being removed are individuals who they suspect of being a part of the so-called 'deep state' and are not providing the full picture of intelligence assessments under their purview. And so there's going to be a lot of questions here," Hillyard continued.

He reinforced that the matter was not normal, and it comes at a time when DNI officials are concerned about foreign governments meddling in the 2026 midterm elections.

The number of dismissed career officials and DNI experts is expected to be in the dozens, Hillyard closed.

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“Bill Pulte Picks G.O.P. Election Operative for Spy Agency Job”

June 26, 2026, 2:21 pmelection subversion risk, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

NYT:

Bill Pulte, the acting director of national intelligence, has installed as his chief of staff a woman who worked on election-related issues for the Republican National Committee, according to former U.S. officials.

Christina Norton, the former R.N.C. official, has also served as Bill Pulte’s chief of staff at the federal housing agency he leads. But much of her recent work for the G.O.P. has centered on election issues, including efforts to monitor voting sites during the 2024 presidential election.

Mr. Pulte’s decision to put Ms. Norton in the powerful post is likely to further fuel concerns among Democrats, intelligence officials and state and local election administrators that he intends to focus on hunting for evidence of election fraud at the behest of President Trump.

Mr. Trump has said Mr. Pulte is expected to work on election security matters, prompting fears by some officials that he could try to influence the midterm elections. Other officials expect him to declassify documents related to issues that have preoccupied Mr. Trump, including the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

While at the R.N.C., Ms. Norton oversaw a poll watcher program that included conservative conspiracy theorists, including Jack Posobiec, who helped spread the false “Pizzagate” stories about child abuse at a restaurant in Washington….

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c Norton poso

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/26/us/politics/republican-national-committee-2024-posobiec.html

fired deep state for withhold info

faith and freedom tulsi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uQvsTJ9Svc

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bannon mma 7 26

June 30, 2026, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

STEVE BANNON (HOST): SAVE America Act — a lot of people are saying, hey, do we have time to implement it? Are we going to have lawsuits? But President Trump is driving forward. We're a huge proponent of that.

We also know that Bill Pulte is at DNI, and that John Solomon of Real America's Voice is leading a task force on declassification. And yesterday, Pulte hired, from the RNC, as his chief of staff, one of the top election fraud people in all of the RNC to be his chief of staff. So he's telling you where he's — signaling where he's going on this.

My understanding — I don't have any access to this classified information — but my understanding is that there is going to be real revelations about the stealing of the 2020 election.-

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[### Pulte picks RNC's former election integrity director for his ...

Democracy Docket

https://www.democracydocket.com › News](https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/pulte-picks-rncs-former-election-integrity-director-for-his-national-intelligence-agencys-chief-of-staff/)

4 days ago — Acting national intelligence director Bill Pulte picked Christina Norton, known for running the GOP's 2024 poll watcher program, as his ...

Acting national intelligence director Bill Pulte has picked Christina Norton, a GOP lawyer known for running the GOP’s controversial 2024 poll watcher operation, as his chief of staff, reports The New York Times. Norton also was Pulte’s chief of staff at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which he still leads.

When the Republican National Committee (RNC) called for an army of 100,000 poll watchers in 2024 – in alignment with the Trump campaign’s prejudicial declarations of voter fraud – Norton was tapped to serve as its election integrity director. In that role, she oversaw the planning for the RNC’s massive poll watcher program, which drew on a slew of election conspiracists and deniers of the 2020 election results to train volunteers.

Pulte’s hiring of Norton fuels voting rights advocates’ concerns that he’ll be using the national intelligence office to fulfill President Donald Trump’s agenda to subvert this year’s midterms, by amplifying and prioritizing wild goose chases for voter fraud.

One clear example of how Norton approached her role as the RNC’s chief poll watcher and voter fraud investigator can be found in an April 2024 meeting among rightwing activists she attended, where she laid out plans for monitoring voters in that year’s elections.

The RNC’s poll watcher activities had previously been curtailed from 1982 to 2018 due to its intimidation tactics against Black and Latino voters in the early 80s. Under a consent decree, the RNC was only able to carry out “ballot security” programs under court approval and supervision during that time period. But when the decree was lifted, the RNC went all out in revamping its poll watcher missions in 2020 and 2024, much of it in cahoots with the Trump campaign.

For Norton in 2024, that meant working with scores of grassroots far-right and MAGA activists, many of whom were still peddling the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. Some of those activists were at the April 2024 meeting with Norton, and continued these “stolen election” narratives as incentivization for that year’s poll watching strategies.

Among the speakers at that meeting:

As the Nebraska Examiner reported, Norton neither disputed nor objected to the claims made at the meeting.

“If reports are true that Bill Pulte, whose installation as acting D.N.I. already raises serious legal questions, is bringing a former senior R.N.C. official who cavorted with election deniers and conspiracy theories into O.D.N.I. as his chief of staff, Americans have every reason to fear that this administration is once again eroding the wall between our intelligence agencies and domestic elections,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intel Committee, in a statement to the Times.

Perhaps the most notorious recruit to the RNC’s 2024 poll watching apparatus was Jack Posobiec, the person responsible for the “Pizzagate” conspiracy that Democrats were behind a diabolical pedophilia ring run out of a D.C. pizza shop.

The RNC invited Posobiec to train a group of poll watcher volunteers in Michigan in September 2024. There, he shared voter fraud myths and told the trainees, “it doesn’t matter who votes. It matters who counts the votes.”

It was an escalation of a similar statement that Trump made in 2024 when he announced his own campaign’s robust poll watcher operation: “Having the right people to count the ballots is just as important as turning out voters on Election Day.”

[### Bill Pulte Picks G.O.P. Election Operative for Spy Agency Job

The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com › U.S. › Politics](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/us/politics/pulte-spy-agency-christina-norton.html)

5 days ago — Christina Norton is the new chief of staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, former officials said.

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MMA

Trump suggested that Bill Pulte at DNI may investigate “rigged elections.” Steve Bannon's War Room podcast is thrilled.

Bannon's War Room has been a longtime hub for election denial and was instrumental in stirring up the January 6 riots

Written by Sophie Lawton

Research contributions from John Knefel

Published 06/23/26

On his podcast War Room, Steve Bannon and his guests are celebrating Bill Pulte's position as acting director of National Intelligence, claiming he will “get to the bottom of the 2020 stolen election." Earlier this month, discussing the appointment, President Trump himself said that Pulte “may find out some things about the rigged elections.”

Pulte started in the role last week after President Donald Trump intervened to stop the Senate confirmation hearing of his DNI nominee, Jay Clayton, despite congressional backlash to Pulte's original appointment as acting DNI. Bannon has been pushing for Pulte as DNI since Trump originally appointed him in early June, calling him “a patriot” and claiming, “It's time now for smash mouth” with members of Congress who opposed his appointment. Even Republican senators have noted objections to Pulte.

Bannon has made it clear that his focus on Pulte's role is absolutely about elections, saying, “Bill Pulte is the perfect choice, the perfect choice to run DNI right now. It also shouldn't be lost on anybody that these elections, the stolen elections, which they're now in your face of how they're going to do it with the mail-in ballots.”

Bannon's War Room has been a longtime hub for election denial and was instrumental in stirring up the January 6 riots. Bannon has already begun laying groundwork for interfering in the midterm elections or denying their legitimacy on the show. Now, he and his guests are suggesting Pulte's time in office will lead to proof that the 2020 election was stolen.

Before Pulte started as acting DNI, Bannon suggested Pulte use the position to “maybe look around the files, maybe actually check into the, you know, some of the election files of 2020.”

In a June 20 interview with former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Bannon explicitly said, “The reason Jay Clayton ain't at DNI right now and Bill Pulte is … is to get to the bottom of the 2020 stolen election.” Bannon then noted that both John Solomon, an election conspiracy theorist, and Pulte are now working together and “they need to stay at DNI.” Giuliani argued Pulte's appointment was important because the California primary elections “look like it was so crooked that nobody will believe it, so either they're cheating or they're making everybody believe they cheat.”

Video

Citation

From the June 20, 2026, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

Giuliani also praised Pulte and specifically his work on elections, saying that “he knows what happened for real,” an apparent reference to the 2020 election that Giuliani has claimed was stolen. He then asked, “How do we have a republic if we don't have free elections?”

On the June 19 edition of War Room, Bannon suggested those opposing Pulte’s appointment are “afraid Pulte's going to get his hands on” proof the 2020 election was stolen and that they're “damn right” that MAGA will “use it in the midterm.” Bannon added, “Bill Pulte's in, and he and Solomon are going to get their hands on it, and you're going to have to live with it. The American people are going to see the receipts.”

Video

Citation

From the June 19, 2026, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

Article III Project founder and regular War Room guest Mike Davis told Bannon about Pulte: “He'll go in there and he'll rip apart that place for as long as President Trump needs Bill Pulte to rip apart that place.” He said, “President Trump can keep Bill Pulte as the acting DNI for as long as he wants and I love it,” adding “There is so much that needs to be exposed at the DNI, and Bill Pulte is the perfect man to do it.”

Another frequent War Room guest and election conspiracy theorist, Jack Posobiec appeared on Bannon's show and suggested members of Congress were scared to confirm Pulte because they did not want to expose election fraud, saying, “Could it be that there was some kind of foreign interference or some kind of penetration of those election systems down there in Fulton County that leads to a massive, massive problem with that 2020 count?"

Now, after weeks of focusing on Pulte uncovering election fraud, Bannon and guests are questioning whether Pulte's priority in office should be prosecuting former director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci.

//

  1. ### Steve Bannon calls for ICE and others to be at “every precinct” for the midterms: “If you’re armed or not, that depends upon what your state laws are”

06/18/26 12:51 PM EDT

  1. ### Right-wing media’s response to results of LA mayoral primary race is a preview of their midterm playbook

06/18/26 6:28 PM EDT

  1. ### Trump’s moves concerning FISA, DNI, and Bill Pulte align with what Steve Bannon has been saying — and Bannon is clear it’s about elections

06/17/2

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OMFG STONE

an 6 26

President Donald Trump appointed Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence, tapping him to manage the entire national security apparatus of the United States. The "unorthodox" pick reportedly came from longtime GOP operative Roger Stone, Semafor reports.

According to Semafor, MAGA forces joined together to convince Trump that, despite his lack of intel experience, Pulte could still manage the 17 intelligence agencies that the post oversees.

Pulte will serve in the job while also remaining in his current job as Federal Housing Finance Agency Director. This adds to Pulte's other job, chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

What Stone, Trump and other MAGA allies believe is that Pulte can use his "attack-dog mentality" in "waging an internal war to ramp up the declassification of sensitive information," according to the Tuesday report.

“He’s like a bulldozer,” said a source familiar with Pulte when speaking to Semafor about Pulte. “Bulldoze the bureaucracy and accelerate document releases and declassifications.”

Stone is best known for his ongoing loyalty to former Republican President Richard Nixon, whom Stone has tattooed on his back. The self-described "dirty trickster" has remained a close confidant and informal adviser to Trump since the 1970s and became a key part of the 2020 "Stop the Steal" movement. He was later convicted on seven counts of lying to Congress and obstruction of justice relating to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Trump commuted his sentence before Stone served a day in prison. He was later pardoned. He's also known for his conspiracy theories and spreading unfounded rumors about Trump's critics.

CNN reporter Kevin Liptak commented after the announcement that Pulte has used his post as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to target some of Trump's foes.

"This, I think, suggests that the president will put in this position someone whohas gone after this retribution campaign, who has advanced some ideas of vindication against some of his enemies," the reporter said.

Semafor noted that the biggest barrier to Pulte will be the U.S. Senate. For him to take on the job, Trump needs the votes and right now it doesn't appear he has them.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, “I don’t see any evidence of his qualifications for that job, but I’m willing to listen.”

“We don’t need a weaponized DNI, we need professionals there,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) also told reporters on Tuesday. “If he’s somebody we want in that position permanently, he’s got a lengthy road ahead of him.”

Stone wouldn't comment on the record about his involvement in picking Pulte, Semafor reported.

The one positive of the nomination, a banking lobbyist told Semafor, is that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Pulte don't get along. With Pulte otherwise engaged, Bessent will be able to focus on housing issues.

“If I was Bessent, my wheels are turning right now, like: ‘What can I accomplish in the housing space while I have this open field?’” the banking lobbyist said.

Democrats appear ready for a fight.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a statement about Pulte on Tuesday, saying, “Today, President Trump is rewarding his lackey — who has no national security experience — with a perch atop our nation’s intelligence community. What could go wrong?”

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an 4 26

rogan haha at dr expl?

President Donald Trump may have posted a meme of himself as Jesus Christ at the urging of an adviser previously referred to by other Republicans as a “nut.”

“Before President Trump posted an image of him as a Christ-like healer, he discussed the meme with his controversial housing finance chief Bill Pulte,” Axios journalist Marc Caputo wrote on Wednesday. Both Trump and Pulte declined to comment to Axios, although a third adviser friendly to Pulte denied the accusation to Axios.

“Trump was in South Florida over the weekend and the two spent time together, according to two advisers who spoke to the president about the image,” Axios reported. “At some point, Pulte brought the image to Trump's attention, the advisers told Axios. It's not clear whether he just displayed the rendering on his phone or actually sent it to the president.”

The meme was widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike, with both sides characterizing it as both disrespectful to Christianity and indicative of Trump potentially experiencing cognitive decline. It does not help that the person who allegedly suggested he post the meme is Pulte, who aroused controversy last year for being connected to an alleged attempt to get the Justice Department to investigate mortgage and tax fraud against former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California. A wealthy real estate developer who Trump put in charge of the powerful Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to develop public housing policy, Pulte is regarded as extremely conservative as well as volatile and eccentric.

“I think he’s a nut,” one House Republican recently told Politico about Pulte, who has caused friction in the Washington bureaucracy with his fiery personality and assistance in the president’s campaigns against Federal Reserve figures like Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent reportedly threatened to punch Pulte in the face at a recent Washington dinner party, with other Republicans reportedly approving Bessent’s outburst.

“The guy’s just a little too big for his britches,” one lawmaker said.

On another occasion in November Pulte was reportedly in danger of losing his job for his role in convincing Trump to push a 50-year mortgages plan.

"The thing that became clear from this latest episode — if it wasn’t already clear — is that Bill Pulte doesn’t know the first f— — thing about how the mortgage markets operate," a source claimed. "After publicly humiliating the president with his moronic 50-year mortgage plan it’s safe to assume that his days are numbered.”

The FHFA told Politico in response to the Bessent story that “lobbyists’ anonymous sources will not deter Director Pulte from working with the entire administration to ensure a competitive, safe, and sound mortgage market.”

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GONE A WHILE ON FAIL?

MMA

News reports highlight role of Trump attack dog and Fox regular Bill Pulte in threatening Fed chair

Fox has repeatedly platformed Pulte’s attacks against Trump foes like Jerome Powell

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published 01/13/26

Multiple news reports show that Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who has long participated in Fox News' and President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to encourage Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates, played a prominent role in the Trump administration’s decision to send subpoenas to the Fed and threaten Powell with criminal indictment on Friday.

Powell has called the investigation a “pretext” and said the real reason for the subpoenas and threats is his clashes with the president on interest rates.

Pulte began pressuring Powell via social media to lower interest rates beginning last May and repeatedly called for him to resign. Pulte also claimed that Powell had lied in his Senate testimony when questioned about the costs associated with renovating the Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, D.C., and called for a congressional investigation into Powell. Last summer, Pulte even reportedly drafted a letter for Trump to fire Powell.

Pulte also urged the Justice Department to investigate other targets of Trump’s ire, including Fed board member Lisa Cook, who was perceived to be an opponent of Trump’s interest rate agenda, as well as Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had both investigated Trump. Fox News was a major platformer of Pulte’s attacks against Trump’s targets. After Pulte’s attacks against Cook apparently crumbled, he disappeared from Fox for several weeks.

On Sunday, Bloomberg News reported that Pulte “was a driving force” behind Friday’s subpoenas targeting Powell. From Bloomberg’s report:

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte was a driving force behind the Trump administration’s decision to subpoena the Federal Reserve, according to people familiar with the matter, intensifying pressure on the central bank as President Donald Trump prepares to pick a new Fed chief.

…

The head of the typically staid FHFA has been a vocal force within the administration, pushing controversial housing policy ideas and investigating Trump’s foes for mortgage fraud. Pulte submitted a criminal referral to the DOJ about Fed Governor Lisa Cook that is at the root of Trump’s push to fire her. The Supreme Court is set to take up the Cook case later this month.

The next day, Politico reported that backlash to the threat to indict Powell has ironically led to some Trump administration “officials and allies again calling for the ouster of” Pulte, whom they “suspect” is “behind the latest inquiry.” Politico additionally reported:

Pulte, who spent months last year lambasting Powell on social media and on television, recently pitched Trump on ousting Powell, going so far as to bring “wanted” posters of the Fed chief along with him, according to three of the people familiar.

Indeed, Axios also reported that the day the subpoenas were served to the Federal Reserve, Pulte said to reporters outside of the White House: “We do need to get rid of Jay Powell. He's a disaster.” Pulte reportedly added: “What he's caused with the building is a disgrace to the Fed. The Fed has no credibility as a result of him.”

On January 13, The Wall Street Journal reported: “In recent weeks, one administration official who lobbied for a probe was Bill Pulte. … Pulte had previously argued in favor of opening an investigation into Powell in private conversations with the president and senior administration officials.”

An editorial from the Journal noted that “our sources say Bill Pulte of the Federal Housing Finance Agency wrote a report that made its way to Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C.,” whose office sent the subpoena.

The editorial also called for “firing Mr. Pulte before he can cause any more embarrassment” to the administration.

Amid all the reporting of Pulte’s key involvement in the subpoena against Powell, he turned to Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo for her softball treatment in an apparent effort to control the damage. Even though Bartiromo had expressed her own reservations about the threatened indictment against Powell earlier, she pressed Pulte on this news for less than one minute, during which he denied involvement, and let him ramble about other topics for the remainder of the interview.

Video

Citation

From the January 12, 2026, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria

MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Joining me now is U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Chairman William Pulte. Mr. Chairman, good to see you. Thank you so much for being here.

BILL PULTE (FHFA DIRECTOR): Always good to see you, Maria.

BARTIROMO: A lot of people are questioning this, why is Trump’s DOJ investigating Chairman Powell? Is this all politics?

PULTE: That’s outside — this whole thing is outside of my purview, Maria. So I’d refer you to the DOJ on that matter.

BARTIROMO: Yeah, but you’ve been talking down to Jay Powell since you got in the job. You said that you were looking at investigating the way he conducted himself anyway. So, you know more about this than you’re letting on.

PULTE: Well, my main focus, Maria, frankly, is focused on mortgage rates and making sure that we get home buying and home building back in this country.

MMA //

  1. ### Trump enforcer Bill Pulte disappeared from Fox after accusations against Fed board member Lisa Cook crumbled

09/24/25 5:17 PM EDT

  1. ### Fox Business lets Trump enforcer Bill Pulte spin his debunked “mortgage fraud” accusations against Lisa Cook

09/26/25 2:39 PM EDT

  1. ### MAGA media help federal housing chief weaponize his agency against Trump’s political opponents

09/03/25

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AN 12? 25 NOTE TISH FAIL 2X

Busted: Trump’s own mortgages match his description of mortgage fraud - Alternet.org

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// TODD BLANCHE GRAND JURY?

AN 11 25

Alex Jones, the far-right conspiracy theorist and host of InfoWars, appears to have been given considerable insider information pertaining to President Donald Trump's campaign of legal revenge against his perceived enemies, based on a new analysis from The Bulwark, which called the situation "deeply troubling."

The efforts to bring lawsuits against prominent Democrats and opponents of the president, including former FBI head James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, have been ongoing for the past few months but have hit numerous snags in recent days. Among them, ABC News reported that the Department of Justice and the FBI are investigating whether the heads of the investigative efforts, Ed Martin and Bill Pulte, “enlisted individuals outside the Department of Justice to probe allegations of mortgage fraud." MS Now also reported that a federal grand jury is reviewing allegations that the two “illegally shared sensitive grand jury information with unauthorized people.”

Little is known about which individuals Martin and Pulte may have divulged sensitive legal information to, but an analysis of past posts and comments from Jones by the Bulwark suggests that he may have been one of them. As far back as August, just a few weeks prior to the indictment against Comey, Jones shared a video to X in which he claimed to have had long talks with “high-level DOJ sources” and was “authorized to tell you basically everything they told me except a few things,” mentioning grand jury investigations into James and Special Counsel Jack Smith, among other things.

“There are a whole bunch of grand juries open and I know where and a lot more,” Jones said in the August 23 post. “And I can tell you Trump is cracking the whip and pushing through the DOJ, any of the bureaucrats that are trying to block this and [Trump] is in daily communication with the patriots in there."

A day later, on August 24, Jones shared another video with the caption "MEGA-BOMBSHELL EXCLUSIVE!!!” in which he claimed to have had a 45-minute-long conversation with Martin specifically. Martin has a history withJones, appearing on InfoWars several times over the years.

“I’ve known Ed [for] twenty-five years and he’s one of the most stalwart, trustworthy people, everybody knows that,” Jones said. “He [Martin] has full discretion from the president to say whatever he wants, he decided to tell me."

Jones claimed that Martin had shared his strategy for pursuing prosecutions against top Democrats, including "about twenty" things that were "over-the-top, bombshell important.”

“They’ve got grand juries open in Virginia, Missouri, New York, and a bunch of other states,” Jones said. “And I don’t mean just one per state... I can tell you that there’s process crimes all over the place in this. So when you see people indicted for process crimes, that’s not because they’re limiting it, that’s to get them in the bear trap, and then to get them to roll over. They’re gonna get ’em any way they can."

While Jones named several figures who have since faced indictments, he also mentioned Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson as another target, citing allegations that he incited city residents against ICE officers. Later, on September 14, Jones shared a photo of himself with Martin with the included caption, “The Deep State is in DEEP S---!”

Assuming Jones is telling the truth, what else did Martin tell Jones about his investigations into top Democrats?" the Bulwark's analysis concluded. "We do not know. We do know that the relationship between Martin and Jones is deeply troubling, given Martin’s roles inside the DOJ. It shows that Martin is pursuing an extreme, sensationalist agenda—not justice."

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AN 11 25 TODD BLANCHE PO’D UNFORCED ERRORS?

Grand jury investigating Trump allies over 'tainted' probes of White House critics

Lesley Abravanel

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“losing alt” po’d fill his perscript

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notus

amelia Benavides-Colón

November 13, 2025

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s director, Bill Pulte, on Thursday marked Rep. Eric Swalwell as the latest foe of President Donald Trump to face a criminal referral for alleged mortgage fraud, according to multiple reports.

Swalwell, a Democrat who has long spoken out against Trump’s administrations and served as an impeachment manager during his second impeachment trial, also filed a civil lawsuit against the president and his allies in 2021 for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

“As the most vocal critic of Donald Trump over the last decade and as the only person who still has a surviving lawsuit against him, the only thing I am surprised about is that it took him this long to come after me,” Swalwell said in a statement.

Pulte alleged in a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday that Swalwell may have made false or misleading statements in loan documents for his $1.2 million Washington property, NBC News first reported.

Swalwell is the fourth Democratic official to be accused of mortgage fraud by Pulte. The others include New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff and Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor.

A grand jury last month criminally indicted James for bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution over a Virginia property she allegedly listed as a second home but used as a rental property for her niece.

Cook was fired in August from her role at the Fed over Pulte’s allegations, though a federal court in the District of Columbia has ruled that she may remain in the role while her legal challenge remains pending. Her case has made its way to the Supreme Court, which announced it would hear oral arguments starting in December.

Trump accused Schiff of engaging in a “sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud,” in a July post on Truth Social. NOTUS reported in August that the senator formed a legal defense fund to fight the allegations.

“The allegations against Senator Schiff are transparently false, stale, and long debunked,” Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney in New York and Schiff’s lawyer for the case, wrote in a statement sent to NOTUS on Tuesday. “The bias here is glaring.”

In his statement Thursday, Swalwell says he has no plans of dropping his lawsuit against the Trump administration.

“I refuse to live in fear in what was once the freest country in the world,” Swalwell said. “Of course, I will not end my lawsuit against him. And I will not stop speaking out against the President and speaking up for Californians.”

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11 25 ggl

AI Overview

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte has referred Rep. Eric Swalwell for a potential federal criminal probe over alleged mortgage fraud, sending the matter to the Department of Justice and the FHFA's Acting Inspector General

. Pulte has made similar referrals regarding other Democrats, and the FHFA Inspector General's office is now reportedly without a top internal watchdog, raising questions about the impartiality and independence of these referrals.

ppref

$

top watchdog out at FHFA

The agency's Office of the Inspector General website now reads that its top position “is currently vacant.”

By:

Cassandra Dumay

| 11/03/2025

The Federal Housing Finance Agency no longer has a top internal watchdog, according to its inspector general website.

Reuters reported Monday that acting Inspector General Joe Allen was facing termination. The outlet previously reported that FHFA Director Bill Pulte had circumvented the inspector general’s office by making criminal referrals on alleged mortgage fraud against Trump adversaries Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The agency's Office of the Inspector General website now reads that its top position “is currently vacant.”

FHFA did not return request for comment.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement that Pulte “has some answering to do – what happened to the watchdog overseeing his agency?”

“What does Pulte have to hide as he continues to use his role to investigate President Trump’s perceived political enemies while failing to lower housing costs for the American people?” Warren added.

...

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ref 1

WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The internal watchdog for the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency is being removed from his role, four people familiar with the matter said, at a time when the housing regulator is playing a role in President Donald Trump's targeting of perceived political enemies.

The ouster of Joe Allen, FHFA's acting inspector general, follows the agency's director, Bill Pulte, becoming an outspoken voice in support of the Trump administration. Across the government, the Trump administration has so far fired or reassigned close to two dozen agency watchdogs, who police waste, fraud and abuse. It has also defunded the group that supervises those offices.

Read about innovative ideas and the people working on solutions to global crises with the Reuters Beacon newsletter. Sign up here.

The FHFA did not immediately respond to emails and a call seeking comment. The four people spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to discuss internal moves at the agency.

Created after the 2008 financial crisis, the FHFA is typically a low-profile regulatory office, but Pulte has launched a new hotline targeting mortgage fraud and made public criminal referrals against a series of Trump foes including New York Attorney General Letitia James, as well as Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook and California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff.

Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who was hand-picked for the job by Trump, subsequently indicted James after her predecessor declined to do so, citing a lack of evidence.

Allen received notice of his termination from the White House after he made efforts to provide key information to prosecutors in that office, according to four sources. The information he turned over was constitutionally required, two of them said, while a third described it as being potentially relevant in discovery.

His ouster also came about as he was preparing to send a letter to Congress notifying lawmakers that the FHFA was not cooperating with the inspector general's office, three of the sources said. These individuals said the FHFA director would typically have been notified of such a letter. Reuters was unable to independently determine whether Pulte was informed.

James has pleaded not guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of lying to a financial institution. Her legal team is seeking to have the case dismissed, claiming Halligan's appointment was unlawful and the prosecution is vindictive.

Trump previously publicly called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to bring charges against James, along with several of his other political foes.

Pulte has circumvented the agency's Office of Inspector General in pursuing those three cases, Reuters previously reported.

Allen had reported to work on Monday, according to the sources.

He also served as chief counsel of the FHFA's inspector general's office. It was not immediately clear whether he was continuing in that latter role, three of the people said.

Allen could not be reached for comment.

He became FHFA's acting inspector general in April 2025, according to an archived page of the agency's website.

On Monday, the website for the FHFA's Office of Inspector General listed the position as "currently vacant". It was unclear when the website was updated.

The most recent snapshot available via the Internet Archive was from late September and listed Allen as acting inspector general.

In response to news of Allen's removal, Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said, "Director Pulte has some answering to do."

Before joining FHFA's inspector general's office, Allen was a 40-year veteran at the Justice Department, where he held various roles from a federal prosecutor to senior legal positions with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

James, a Democrat who last year secured a $450 million fraud judgment against Trump, last month pleaded not guilty to criminal charges of allegedly lying on mortgage documents after Pulte suggested the Justice Department investigate her.

Pulte's leadership at FHFA and over the government-sponsored entities it oversees has been tumultuous. Just last week, he said he had fired dozens of staff at Fannie Mae.

(This story has been corrected to clarify standard agency policy on letters to Congress in paragraph 7)

Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Chris Prentice and Marisa Taylor; Editing by Scott Malone, Nia Williams and Daniel Wallis

MMA

Fox Business lets Trump enforcer Bill Pulte spin his debunked “mortgage fraud” accusations against Lisa Cook

09/26/25

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ref 2 reuters

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The Trump appointee accusing the president’s political foes of mortgage fraud skipped over his agency’s inspector general when making criminal referrals, according to seven people familiar with the matter, bypassing rules meant to ensure that federal officials don’t abuse their power for partisan purposes.

Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, earlier this year made criminal referrals against targets including Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor whom President Donald Trump has tried to dismiss, for alleged crimes related to their mortgages. Breaking with standard procedures, Pulte circumvented that agency’s internal watchdog, typically the office that would make such referrals, by asking the Justice Department to investigate Cook and two other prominent officials.

“The referrals did not come from the OIG,” one of these people said, using shorthand for the office of the inspector general. “It took people there by surprise.”

Cook has denied Pulte’s accusations.

Pulte didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.

Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the FHFA inspector general’s office declined to comment. The White House press office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Pulte’s accusations are at the center of ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to seek criminal charges against perceived foes of the president’s politics and policies. The campaign last month led to a criminal indictment against a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In Cook’s case, the Trump-Pulte effort has been criticized by legal experts as a move to oust a senior policymaker from the Federal Reserve – an independent institution critical to the U.S. economy that the president has increasingly sought to bend to his will.

Trump has argued the investigations are focused on “justice,” not political targets. “It's about justice, really,” he told reporters, following the indictment of the former FBI director. “It’s not revenge.”

By appealing directly to the Justice Department and publicly airing accusations that had not fully been investigated, Pulte broke with decades of precedent and ethics regulations, the people familiar with the matter said. Five of these people, and independent legal experts consulted by Reuters, said Pulte’s moves defied so-called “impartiality” regulations, among other rules meant to prevent political witch hunts.

“You can’t single out people for prosecution for political reasons,” said Richard Painter, a former associate counsel to President George W. Bush and that administration’s top ethics attorney. “It’s a clear violation of federal law.”

Pulte’s actions, legal experts told Reuters, violate various ethics norms and regulations. In addition to “impartiality” rules designed to ensure government officials remain unbiased in decisionmaking, the experts said it could flout the agency’s own procedures, protections under the Privacy Act, and the constitutional right to due process under the Fifth Amendment.

Because ethics rules can be subject to interpretation and to an administration’s willingness to enforce them, however, it’s unclear whether Pulte’s actions will undermine his accusations of mortgage fraud or affect his authority as agency director. Trump himself has praised Pulte, lauding him in one social media post, writing: “DON’T LET THE RADICAL LEFT WEAKLINGS STOP YOU!”

The president’s push to target political opponents with criminal prosecution has intensified. In late September, a grand jury indicted James Comey, the former FBI director and longtime object of Trump criticism, in an alleged perjury case. The indictment arrived shortly after Trump in a social media post called on the attorney general to prosecute him.

Comey has denied any wrongdoing.

The investigation of Cook comes as Trump seeks a more pliant Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank. Although the Fed has long operated free of political meddling, Pulte has joined Trump and other administration officials in criticizing its governors and calling for them to cut interest rates more aggressively. The Supreme Court last week declined to allow Trump’s dismissal of Cook, suspending the matter, opens new tab until it can hear full arguments in the White House’s bid to remove her.

Almost immediately after his March confirmation at the FHFA, Pulte became an outspoken voice of the administration. The FHFA is a low-profile agency created after the 2008 financial crisis to oversee elements of the mortgage-lending sector.

Within months of his arrival, its new chief was aggressively attacking Cook. In August, citing alleged irregularities in her mortgage paperwork, Pulte publicized his request that the Justice Department investigate the Fed governor, targeting her on social media and accusing her of “blatant mortgage fraud.”

To ensure the independence of probes such as those initiated by Pulte, legal experts said, the politically appointed head of a federal agency would typically ask an inspector general to investigate alleged wrongdoing. At many federal agencies, the office of inspector general exists to independently investigate fraud, waste and abuse.

Any evidence obtained during a probe would then be referred to criminal investigators by the inspector general, not the agency head. In no circumstances, these experts added, would the officials involved be expected to publicize an investigation, disregarding any presumption of innocence and potentially tainting the possibility of a fair trial.

“One indication that the criminal mortgage referrals were political in nature is that the referrals were released publicly,” said Andrew Tessman, a former federal prosecutor in Washington and West Virginia who investigated mortgage fraud cases. “That would never happen that way before.”

Shortly after taking the helm of the FHFA, Pulte set up a new channel to receive anonymous tips about mortgage fraud. The agency would welcome tips from “anyone and everyone,” he wrote in April on X, the social media site. The new tip line puzzled some staff, six of the people familiar with the matter told Reuters, because the agency already had such an outlet, overseen by the inspector general’s office.

Reuters couldn’t determine whether Pulte, by establishing a new channel outside the department that historically probed mortgage fraud claims, planned from the start to avoid the inspector general. The earlier tip line, like the office of the inspector general itself, had been established by design to remain free from interference even by agency staff, three people familiar with its workings said.

In addition to his campaign against Cook, Pulte made similar criminal referrals against New York Attorney General Letitia James and Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff. Trump called on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute James, Schiff and Comey in a Sept 20 Truth Social post, opens new tab.

James and Schiff have denied wrongdoing.

None of the referrals has led the Justice Department to announce any criminal indictment. The federal prosecutor overseeing the James investigation resigned in September after Trump publicly said he’d lost confidence in him.

Since Pulte made the referrals, according to documents reviewed by Reuters, officials from the FHFA and other federal agencies have collaborated with the Justice Department in the ensuing probes. The officials have included representatives from the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the inspectors general’s office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the documents show.

Spokespersons for the FBI and IRS didn’t respond to requests for comment. An automated email from the HUD inspector general’s office said the office is closed because of the ongoing government shutdown.

Last month, Reuters reported that the mortgage paperwork associated with one of Cook’s residences showed that she had declared an Atlanta residence, opens new tab to her lender as a “vacation home.” The declaration appears to counter other documentation cited by Pulte suggesting that Cook, in an alleged bid to secure better lending terms, had declared the home her primary residence.

Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch. Editing by Paulo Prada.

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AN 9 25 FED BD?

Treasury secretary accused of same thing Trump wants to fire Fed official for

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ALREADY DEBUNKED; SHE PAID 3.5% ABOVE MKT RATE?

AN 9 25

Under the direction of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating New York State Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud.

But Trump's critics argue that the probe is a baseless fishing expedition motivated by a desire for revenge against a political foe.

According to ABC News reporters Peter Charalambous, Katherine Faulders and Alexander Mallin, Trump's allies continue pushing for an indictment of James — but the investigation is turning up nothing substantial.

READ MORE: 'I'm the one asking the questions': CNN host cuts off Ted Cruz after he shouts over her

"After a five-month investigation and interviews with more than a dozen witnesses," the reporters explain in an article published on September 17, "federal prosecutors have so far uncovered no clear evidence that James knowingly made false statements to a financial institution to secure favorable terms on a mortgage for her Virginia home, according to multiple sources briefed on the investigation. Trump himself has pressured the Department of Justice leadership to investigate James more aggressively, and two officials — Ed Martin, the head of the DOJ's Weaponization Working Group, and Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — have pushed the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to seek an indictment of James."

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The reporters add, "When federal prosecutors recently declined to indict James, Pulte encouraged Trump to fire Eric Siebert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and replace him with a prosecutor who would be willing to bring charges against James, sources said. "

READ MORE:'Undisputed idiot king': Former NBC journalist calls Eric Trump 'the epitome of stupidity'

*Read the full ABC News article at this link.

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FAIL?

Fox continued Trump’s campaign to fire Fed board member Lisa Cook just before reports seemed to exonerate her

09/16/25 MMA

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Former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori tells Politico that President Donald Trump is definitely abusing the Department of Justice to punish his perceived enemies. But he’s not doing it with talent.

“If you want to successfully prosecute your political opponents — on charges that are real or contrived — you should have a competent lawyer in charge,” said Khardori.

Bill Pulte, Trump’s ‘fiercely partisan’ appointee over the Federal Housing Finance Agency made possible Trump’s criminal mortgage fraud investigations into New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a successful civil fraud case against the Trump Organization. Khardori said Pulte’s fingerprints are also likely on Trump’s attack on critic Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) as well as his push to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

READ MORE: 'Very disrespectful!' Trump delivers late-night screed in response to 'bone spurs' hit

“But it is one thing for a federal official like Pulte to run around making accusations on social media, and another thing entirely for prosecutors to develop a credible and legally sound fraud case that will persuade a jury at a trial,” said Khardori, pointing to “a distinct Keystone Cops vibe” given off by Pulte as well as Ed Martin, who is overseeing both the DOJ investigations into mortgage fraud and the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group.

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Martin “has never actually prosecuted a case in his life,” said Khardori, and he recently made himself infamous over a “bizarre and frankly buffoonish” performance staking out James’ home in Brooklyn in the middle of the day as part of a New York Post photo op.

“That caper alone — political, unprofessional and self-discrediting — could doom any effort by Martin to convict James of anything before a jury, assuming he gets that far,” Khardori said.

A Washington, D.C. grand jury has already dumped the Justice Department’s attempt to prosecute a man for throwing a sandwich at a federal agent — handing U.S. attorney and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro an embarrassing failure,despite her taunts.

READ MORE: Trump drops 'atomic bomb' on DOJ: analysis

Trump’s prosecution of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over “Bridgegate is also unlikely to keep Christie up at night,” said Khardori since it happened a decade ago and has been previously prosecuted. Trump himself called the prosecution an “Obama DOJ Scam” at the time.

“These are not the makings of a compelling federal criminal case,” said Khardori.

Of course, even “a bad prosecutor can make his targets’ lives miserable,” warned Khardori, who added that this appears to be part of Trump’s effort.

“The people to worry most about are the ones whose names we do not know — the people and the government officials who may unfairly end up in the Trump administration’s crosshairs and have their lives upended for no good reason,” Khardori said.

READ MORE: 'Let me just stop you there': Wallace cuts off guest who calls for 'nuance' on Trump move

Read the full Politico report at this link.

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During the United States' 2024 presidential nominee, many critics of GOP nominee Donald Trump warned that if he defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and returned to the White House, his second administration would be even more MAGA than his first. And just as those critics predicted, President Trump made a concerted effort to appoint as many ultra-MAGA loyalists as possible.

One of the "loudest" and most performative, according to Vox's Andrew Prokop, is Bill Pulte, director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

In an article published on July 29, Prokop details some of the antics that the 37-year-old Pulte is resorting to in order to show Trump how MAGA he is.

READ MORE:Donald Trump is the most dangerous criminal in US history

"The Trump Administration's loudest attack dog of late holds an unlikely position: director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency," Prokop explains. "The FHFA's 37-year-old director, Bill Pulte, has been pounding the drums to get Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell fired. He's publicly pressured Powell on social media, he gave Trump a draft letter that would have ordered Powell's firing, and he's tried to establish a pretext Trump could use to fire Powell. But Pulte has also played a broader role in Trump's retribution campaign."

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Prokop continues, "He's used his position to try and get two of Trump's Democratic enemies — Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and New York Attorney General Letitia James — prosecuted for mortgage fraud. Some of his allies hope this is just the start, and that even bigger things lie in Pulte's future."

The Vox journalist notes that "attack dog" is not a role one traditionally associates with the FHFA.

"The grandson of the founder of a major home-building company, Pulte has demonstrated a remarkable knack for getting attention and building his public profile," Prokop observes. "He has 3 million followers on X, and his posts there have started to move markets, according to Bloomberg. Pulte has his enemies in the (Trump) Administration; the Wall Street Journal recently reported his anti-Powell campaign has 'irritated' some senior officials."

READ MORE:Trump and MAGA headed for inevitable death spiral

*Read Andrew Prokop's full Vox article at this link (subscription required).

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