A federal grand jury in Maryland is investigating whether Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte and Justice Department official Ed Martin illegally shared sensitive grand jury information with unauthorized people, according to two people familiar with the probe.
The investigation, according to two people familiar and documents reviewed by MS NOW, is focused on whether the mortgage fraud investigations of Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and possibly of New York Attorney General Letitia James have been tainted by the investigative methods allegedly used by Pulte and Martin.
Improperly sharing sensitive grand jury information is a serious breach of Justice Department rules. Investigators who are found to have done so can face criminal charges including obstruction of justice, contempt of court and also stiff fines.
FBI agents have asked witnesses to turn over records and have interviewed them about people who may have presented themselves as federal investigators working on behalf of Pulte or Martin, according to the sources and documents reviewed by MS NOW.
It’s an extraordinary turnabout for the Department of Justice to be investigating two of Trump’s staunchest allies, who together have pressured career prosecutors to bring mortgage fraud charges against Schiff, James and others when those prosecutors have broadly concluded the facts do not support seeking indictments of those individuals. According to two sources, the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who reportedly has grown concerned about unforced errors in Justice Department investigations, is helping to oversee this new Maryland probe.
When reached by MS NOW, the Justice Department had no comment. MS NOW has also reached out to Pulte for comment.
Christine Bish, a California realtor who was among the first to level allegations of mortgage fraud against Schiff, was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in Greenbelt, Maryland, she told MS NOW in a telephone interview.
In lieu of testifying, she opted to sit down with a prosecutor and other federal investigators for an interview, she said. Instead of focusing on the mortgage allegations, she said, the interview centered around her communications with Pulte, Martin and two other men who said they were investigating the issue.
“I expected to be talking in detail about the evidence that I gathered against Adam Schiff,” she said. “What it turned into is, ‘Have you talked to Ed Martin, have you talked to Director Pulte, what have your communications with them been?’”
The subpoena also asked for documents related to her communications with those men and others, according to person familiar with the matter.
“What they were fishing for, in my opinion, was if Pulte or Ed Martin had asked me to do this investigation.”
She said she has never spoken with Martin and had only limited interactions with Pulte. She said she did tell the investigators about her conversations on the mortgage issue with two other men she identified as Robert Bowes and Scott Strauss. They represented that they were investigating Schiff, she said, but the investigators explained they were not actually part of the FBI investigation.
Bish told MS NOW she didn’t see any problem with the men asking for information, given that mortgage documents are a matter of public record. But prosecutors appear to be examining whether Bowes, Strauss and others were gathering information in a way that could compromise the investigation into Schiff.
Robert Bowes was nominated for a spot on the Consumer Finance Protection Board in Trump’s first term, but does not appear to hold a current government job.
“You guys are like the Keystone Cops,” Bish said she told the investigators. “You’re investigating each other.”
Carol Leonnig is a senior investigative reporter with MS NOW.
Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for MS NOW.