A top housing official in Donald Trump’s administration is referring Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell to the Department of Justice for a potential criminal probe for mortgage fraud.
The California congressman is the fourth Democratic official and Trump opponent to face allegations of mortgage fraud in recent months.
Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, accused Swalwell of making false or misleading statements in a referral letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday. NBC News first reported the referral.
“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,” the congressman said in a statement Thursday.
“Like James Comey and John Bolton, Adam Schiff and Lisa Cook, Letitia James and the dozens more to come — I refuse to live in fear in what was once the freest country in the world,” he added.
“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,” Swalwell said. “As Mark Twain said, ‘Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.’ Mr. President, do better. Be Better.”
Swalwell, a former prosecutor and prominent anti-Trump member of Congress who frequently spars with administration officials on- and offline, was among House members who sued the president over violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, invoking a civil right statute initially intended to combat the Ku Klux Klan’s intimidation of elected officials.
The congressman also served in key roles during the president’s two impeachment proceedings and was among the first lawmakers to demand an investigation into allegations of Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election.
Pulte, meanwhile, has issued criminal referrals targeting several other prominent Trump critics, including Senator Schiff, former Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who pleaded not guilty last month after a grand jury indicted her on charges stemming from Pulte’s allegations.
In September, the president publicly urged Bondi to prosecute his perceived political enemies without “delay,” suggesting the prosecution of his favored targets is retribution for his impeachments and indictments against him.
Trump, Bondi and law enforcement across the Justice Department — now filled with loyalists and attorneys to dominate agencies that the president claims were weaponized against him — are also targeting other prominent Democratic officials as well as progressive fundraising groups and an array of ideological opponents the administration alleges are tied to acts of terrorism.
The Independent has requested comment from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Pulte’s latest referral also follows a heated House committee hearing, days before the government shutdown, in which FBI director Kash Patel evaded Swalwell’s questions about Jeffrey Epstein and labeled his career in Congress “bull****” and a “disgrace to the American people.”
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