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U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff kept a straight face and avoided a reporter’s questioning about President Donald Trump‘s accusations of mortgage fraud.
The Democrat from California is accused of misleading mortgage lenders about his primary residence being in the Washington, DC, suburbs rather than California.
In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote, “Adam Schiff said that his primary residence was in MARYLAND to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA.”
The president went on to call Schiff a “crook,” claiming the alleged fraud started with the “refinance of his (Schiff’s) Maryland property on February 6, 2009.” The president claims Schiff continued this pattern through “multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020.”
A Fannie Mae investigation did not say it had come to a conclusion that a crime had been committed, according to the Los Angeles Times. Investigators had been asked by the Federal Housing Finance Agency Inspector General’s office for loan files or “any related investigative or quality control documentation” for Schiff’s homes.
The Times reviewed the memo, which stated investigators found that Schiff, at different times, listed his primary residence as either his home in Potomac, MD, and a Burbank address. The memo concluded that Schiff and his wife, Eve, “engaged in a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” on their home loans between 2009 and 2020. No mention of a crime or fraud was cited in the memo.
On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Schiff didn’t answer a Fox News Digital reporter who asked, “Do you have a response to Trump saying you’re guilty of mortgage fraud?” Schiff just replied, “Have a nice day.”
(Truth Social)
Schiff speaks
Schiff has been a long-time opponent of Trump. He led the House impeachment of Trump during the president’s first term.
This time, the California senator made his stance known on the alleged accusations, when he posted a nearly five-minute YouTube video, titled “Trump Just Threatened Me Directly. I’m Not Backing Down.”
He claims Trump’s accusations are to distract from the controversy surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files. Recently, it was announced by the Justice Department that no Epstein “client list” existed. It was believed that the list would reveal powerful individuals associated with Epstein, who was accused of sex abuse and trafficking.
In Schiff’s video, he said Trump is “using my ownership of two homes to make a false claim of mortgage fraud, but what really is going on here is this is Donald Trump trying to bring about political retribution, retaliation, trying to distract from his Epstein file problem.
“A president threatening prosecution or saying that his opponent should be jailed—this is the kind of stuff you see tin pot dictators do,” he continued.
Schiff was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2024. Previously, he served as a member of the U.S. House Representatives for 12 terms, since 2001.