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muriel_volestrangler

(104,862 posts) Thu Sep 4, 2025, 04:24 PM Sep 4

Trump Is Accusing Foes With Multiple Mortgages of Fraud. Records Show 3 of His Cabinet Members Have Them.

Source: ProPublica

The Trump administration has vowed to go after anyone who got lower mortgage rates by claiming more than one primary residence on their loan papers.

President Donald Trump has used it as a justification to target political foes, including a governor on the Federal Reserve Board, a Democratic U.S. senator and a state attorney general.
...
Underscoring how common the practice is, ProPublica found that at least three of Trump’s Cabinet members call multiple homes their primary residences on mortgages. We discovered the loans while examining financial disclosure forms, county real estate records and publicly available mortgage data provided by Hunterbrook Media.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer entered into two primary-residence mortgages in quick succession, including for a second home near a country club in Arizona, where she’s known to vacation. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary-residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary-residence mortgage in Long Island and another in Washington, D.C., according to loan records.

Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-cabinet-mortgage-fraud

Meanwhile: US Justice Department opens criminal mortgage fraud probe into Fed Governor Cook
"You got three more fingers, pointing back at you"

5 replies

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Trump Is Accusing Foes With Multiple Mortgages of Fraud. Records Show 3 of His Cabinet Members Have Them. (Original Post) muriel_volestrangler Sep 4 OP

And I hope people understand that even though the people he accuses like Adam Schiff Eliot Rosewater Sep 4 #1

HE did it. For YEARS. Scrivener7 Sep 4 #2

Ken Paxton has 3 houses gab13by13 Sep 4 #3

Well kettle, why did you call the pot black? twodogsbarking Sep 4 #4

MaddowBlog-Mortgage fraud allegations generate new political headaches for Team Trump LetMyPeopleVote Sep 8 #5

Eliot Rosewater

(34,184 posts)

1. And I hope people understand that even though the people he accuses like Adam Schiff

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 04:31 PM

Sep 4

Who are completely innocent, there will be false documents produced that says he is not innocent.

I’m assuming everyone knows this is coming about everything?

Scrivener7

(57,328 posts)

2. HE did it. For YEARS.

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 04:35 PM

Sep 4

gab13by13

(29,897 posts)

3. Ken Paxton has 3 houses

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 04:54 PM

Sep 4

He claimed as his primary residence, got the Homestead exemption for 2 of them.

twodogsbarking

(16,016 posts)

4. Well kettle, why did you call the pot black?

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 05:24 PM

Sep 4

Don Q 1620 , I couldn't spell Quixote.

LetMyPeopleVote

(170,428 posts)

5. MaddowBlog-Mortgage fraud allegations generate new political headaches for Team Trump

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Mon Sep 8, 2025, 05:02 PM

Sep 8

Donald Trump urged reporters to start digging into officials’ mortgage records. Two weeks later, he probably wishes he hadn’t offered that advice.

Mortgage fraud allegations generate new political headaches for Team Trump www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
— @jimrissmiller.bsky.social 2025-09-08T18:23:32.648Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/mortgage-fraud-allegations-generate-new-political-headaches-team-trump-rcna229883

But the president’s challenge — perhaps reporters should “go check out the records” themselves — has proven to be interesting advice. ProPublica reported last week, for example:

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer entered into two primary-residence mortgages in quick succession, including for a second home near a country club in Arizona, where she’s known to vacation. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary-residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary-residence mortgage in Long Island and another in Washington, D.C., according to loan records.

A day later, Reuters advanced the broader story in an even more provocative way:

Close relatives of the federal official who has accused a Federal Reserve governor of improperly claiming primary residence on two properties have declared the same status on two homes in two different states, public records show. Mark and Julie Pulte, the father and stepmother of Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, since 2020 have claimed so-called ‘homestead exemptions’ for residences in wealthy neighborhoods in both Michigan and Florida, according to the records.

......That said, immediately after Pulte filed a criminal complaint against Cook with the Justice Department, quite a few observers made the case that the underlying issue is quite common and rarely prosecuted, which necessarily raised questions about selective enforcement and why the administration is going after the president’s perceived foes and not his allies who appear to have done the same thing.,,,,,

The senator added, “Donald Trump has made mortgage fraud accusations his weapon of choice to attack people standing in his way and people standing up to him, like me. ... Should we expect Trump and his enablers at [the Justice Department] to make sensational accusations against and investigate his own Cabinet?”

If recent history is any guide, I think we know the answer to that question.

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