Bill Pulte, the ultra-MAGA multi- millionaire shitstain head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), who filed "shaky" mortgage fraud allegations against Fed Governor Lisa Cook and others recently, seems to have a paperwork problem of his own. Surprise, surprise:
The president’s move against Cook, who has not been charged with a crime, was enabled by Bill Pulte—the 37-year-old head of the little-known Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte recently charged in a post to his 3 million X followers that Cook had designated two homes as her primary residence at the same time—posting a side-by-side screenshot of her signatures on two mortgage applications, under a banner reading: “FRAUD AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE.” [snip]
The heir to a real estate and construction fortune, Pulte got his job in the administration about three years after his wife, Diana Pulte, donated $500,000 to a super PAC backing Trump. The donation was channeled through a Delaware shell company, ML Organization LLC, that Bill Pulte controlled. It came at a crucial moment, as the former president was just beginning to get his new campaign off the ground following his reelection defeat and the 2021 Capitol insurrection.
This opaque gift drew a complaint from a watchdog group alleging that Pulte violated campaign finance laws by obscuring the source of the funds. A resulting Federal Election Commission investigation concluded only this year, when the FEC quietly announced that the Trump-controlled PAC had erred by failing to properly disclose that Diana Pulte was the real source of the money. The agency said that Bill Pulte had not broken the law, and it did not accuse Diana Pulte of wrongdoing.
This response from the Malignant Fascist's wholly owned FHFA sounds like it was written by the convicted felon himself:
“The FEC looked at the issue and determined that there was no violation by Director Pulte,” an FHFA spokesperson told Mother Jones. “He was 100 percent compliant. Anything else is Fake News, an attempt to smear Director Pulte and distract from serious mortgage fraud. SAD.”
Totes legit! Moving on:
Pulte did not respond to questions about why the donation went through a shell company, if he was involved in the donation credited to his wife, or whether the large donation helped him land his job in the administration.
He also has not addressed an FEC determination that the “contributor” of the funds—Diana Pulte—had incorrectly filled out a form to indicate the money came from an LLC rather than a member of the Pulte family. That looks like the same kind of paperwork sloppiness—in information ultimately provided to the federal government—that Bill Pulte is now harassing Trump foes over.
“I am extremely skeptical that Bill Pulte would come across 1/100th as well as Lisa Cook if his paperwork were scrutinized as closely as he has scrutinized Cook’s paperwork,” said Jeff Hauser, the executive director of the nonprofit Revolving Door Project, which tracks executive branch appointees it says fail to serve the broad public interest.
Mortgage fraud is, of course, a subject the Malignant Fascist knows plenty about:
A New York judge ruled in 2023 that Trump himself had committed major mortgage fraud by inflating the value of his real estate holdings and other assets, in a case prosecuted by James’ office. An appeals court last week threw out a $550 million civil fine against Trump but left in place the underlying finding of fraud, which Trump is appealing...
Pulte's abuse of power while serving as the Malignant Fascist's attack dog would get him fired and investigated in any "normal" administration. But, fascists will be fascists:
Pulte “seems to be going through the enemies list to see, ooh, can he find any place in a complex mortgage document where he alleges someone has said something that doesn’t entirely add up,” Warren said Wednesday on MSNBC. He “is out there trying to engage in a political hit job, and this just happens to be the data that he has access to.”
Adam Levitin, a Georgetown law professor, argued recently that Pulte’s focus on three prominent Trump targets suggests the director “used the apparatus of the FHFA to target a political opponent.”
“Pulte’s abuse of office is a far, far greater offense than any personal mortgage occupancy fraud by a federal official,” Levitan wrote.
At the link, there's more about Pulte, who's your standard mini-Trump in so many ways
A regime of crooks -- but crooks with flamethrowers.
(Image: Crook, crook, Cook / via Barron's)
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