Anti-DEI measures cited to justify laying off 62 Fannie Mae employees last month may have been a foil for firing ethics investigators looking into whether director Bill Pulte improperly obtained mortgage records for New York Attorney General Letitia James and other targets of President Trump, according to a new report.
AP Photo/John Clark
New York Attorney General Letitia James, speaks to the media after pleading not guilty outside the United States District Court in Norfolk, Va. on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/John Clark)
Fannie Mae’s ethics and investigations group was acting on complaints lodged via a staffer tip line that enables whistleblowers to report potential internal misconduct. In this case, staffers had claimed higher-ups had improperly instructed people to access mortgage documents of James and other Democratic officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Investigators were looking into who ordered the document search, whether Pulte was within his rights to do so, and if proper procedure had been followed, people familiar with the matter told WSJ.
About a dozen of those dismissed from the Federal National Mortgage Association worked in the ethics compliance office, gutting it as the team investigated a high ranking Federal Housing Finance Agency official close to Pulte, the Washington Post reported. It was not clear whether that person had been Pulte, whose predecessor was dismissed after declaring there wasn’t enough evidence to charge top Democratic officials with any wrongdoing.
The group then passed its inquiry up the chain to the Office of Inspector General for FHFA, the agency Pulte leads that oversees Fannie Mae and sibling agency Freddie Mac. The acting inspector general, Joe Allen, sent it to the U.S. attorney’s office in eastern Virginia, sources said. He received a termination notice soon after from the compliance team.
The report landed on the desk of Lindsey Halligan, newly sworn in as U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. The former White House aide and Trump personal attorney had taken over days after Trump forced out her predecessor, Erik Siebert, for saying he did not have enough evidence to prosecute Trump’s perceived enemies.
Halligan indicted James Comey on Sept. 25 for allegedly lying to Congress, and James for alleged mortgage fraud on Oct. 9. Both have pleaded not guilty. James is pushing to have her case dismissed and Halligan’s appointment declared illegal.
With News Wire Services
