NEWNow you can take heed to Fox Information articles!
The Division of Justice is probably going digging into Sen. Adam Schiff’s mortgage paperwork path stretching again to a Maryland dwelling buy from the early 2000s because it weighs whether or not it has an hermetic case to probably prosecute the longtime political foe of President Donald Trump, in response to a Cornell Regulation College professor.
“The one factor they do not need to do is to convey a case that fails,” William Jacobson advised Fox Digital in a Zoom interview, referring to the DOJ probably investigating Schiff’s alleged mortgage fraud. Jacobson is a medical professor and the Director of the Securities Regulation Clinic at Cornell.
“Both it fails legally, or it fails in court docket. They do not need to lose that case if you happen to’re going towards a serious political opponent. And that is a part of the calculation that can happen.”
Jacobson talked in regards to the ins and outs of the Democratic California senator’s potential authorized woes following the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Company sending a letter to the DOJ this 12 months claiming that Schiff falsified banking and property paperwork by itemizing two properties – on two separate coasts – as his major residence out of an effort to allegedly get extra favorable loans.
The DOJ has not but stated whether or not it might take up the case, however is probably going digging into Schiff’s paper path because it weighs whether or not to maneuver ahead, Jacobson defined.
TRUMP ACCUSES ‘SCAM ARTIST’ SCHIFF OF LYING ABOUT MARYLAND HOME TO COMMIT MORTGAGE FRAUD
President Donald Trump highlighted 2024 allegations of mortgage fraud towards Sen. Adam Schiff, claims that Schiff has denied. (Getty Pictures)
“I might count on that the very first thing the Division of Justice goes to do is to collect paperwork. There will likely be a paper path right here. There will likely be many issues which might be documentable, and never ‘he stated, she stated,’ as to the place Adam Schiff was truly dwelling,” he stated.
As investigators undergo the paperwork, they are going to ask questions reminiscent of: What was his precise major residence? What did he signal? Who was current when he signed? Did he have conversations with folks about it?
The legislation professor, who based the favored conservative authorized weblog Authorized Rebellion, stated that there’ll probably be a “important paper path” to undergo because of the case stretching again greater than 20 years and as a result of firms protecting tight data following the 2008 monetary crash.
“Mortgage firms protect all of these items due to the monetary disaster and different issues. They’ve to keep up these data. . . . And I might count on that that will be the very first thing the Division of Justice would take a look at is the paper path and the circumstantial proof as to the place Adam Schiff was, the truth is, dwelling,” he continued, remarking that there are “no shrinking violets” on the Trump DOJ.

U.S. Legal professional Common Pam Bondi and President Donald Trump. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures)
Schiff first fell beneath scrutiny this 12 months in Could, when the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Company (FHFA) despatched a letter to the Division of Justice sounding the alarm that, in “a number of cases,” Schiff allegedly “falsified financial institution paperwork and property data to accumulate extra favorable mortgage phrases, impacting funds from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property.”
On the coronary heart of the difficulty are two properties bought by Schiff: a house bought in 2003 in Potomac, Maryland, for $870,000 beneath a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage settlement for $610,000 at a charge of 5.625% over a time period of 30 years, and a 2009 Burbank, Calif., apartment. Schiff reaffirmed the Potomac property as his principal residence in mortgage refinancing paperwork in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013, in response to the FHFA letter to the DOJ.
Over the identical time-frame, Schiff took a home-owner’s tax exemption on the Burbank apartment whereas additionally claiming that dwelling as his major residence for a $7,000 discount off of the 1% property tax, FHFA Director William Pulte wrote within the letter to the DOJ, citing media stories.
In 2023, the letter continued, a spokesperson for Schiff asserted that “Adam’s major residence is Burbank, California, and can stay so when he wins the Senate seat.”
FHFA is an unbiased federal company that oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal House Mortgage Financial institution System.
TRUMP INVOKES RUSSIA COLLUSION HOAX WHILE CALLING FOR LONGTIME FOE SCHIFF TO FACE JAIL TIME
In 2020, Schiff refinanced his mortgage, itemizing his Maryland dwelling as his secondary residence.
Trump publicly slammed Schiff over his mortgages in July on Fact Social, accusing him of fraud and placing the difficulty again on the general public’s radar following 2023 information stories on Schiff’s properties in Maryland and California.
“I’ve all the time suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a rip-off artist,” Trump posted to Fact Social Tuesday. “And now I be taught that Fannie Mae’s Monetary Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained sample of potential Mortgage Fraud.”

U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff was accused of mortgage fraud and referred to the DOJ. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures)
“Adam Schiff stated that his major residence was in MARYLAND to get a less expensive mortgage and rip off America, when he should LIVE in CALIFORNIA as a result of he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA. I all the time knew Adam Schiff was a Criminal. The FRAUD started with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued by way of a number of transactions till the Maryland property was accurately designated as a second dwelling on October 13, 2020.”
FOX NEWS POLITICS NEWSLETTER: SCHIFF FLAGGED FOR POTENTIAL MORTGAGE FRAUD BY TRUMP OFFICIAL
Schiff has repeatedly denied and disregarded the accusations, together with refusing to reply questions from Fox Information Digital about his alleged mortgage fraud when confronted within the nation’s capital on July 16.
“Since I led his first impeachment, Trump has repeatedly referred to as for me to be arrested for treason. So in a method, I assume it is a little bit of a letdown. And this baseless try at political retribution gained’t cease me from holding him accountable. Not by a protracted shot,” he posted to X in July following Trump’s preliminary Fact Social assault on Schiff’s mortgages.
“That is simply Donald Trump’s newest try at political retaliation towards his perceived enemies. So it isn’t a shock, solely how weak this false allegation seems to be. And far as Trump could hope, this smear won’t distract from his Epstein recordsdata drawback,” he added.
Schiff’s major residence discrepancies first hit the general public’s radar in 2023, when Schiff launched an finally profitable marketing campaign to serve within the Senate after a long time within the U.S. Home. CNN revealed the primary information article detailing that Schiff had claimed the Maryland dwelling as a major residence whereas additionally taking a home-owner’s tax exemption on the Burbank apartment.
The marketing campaign stated on the time that Schiff’s two properties had been listed as major residences “for mortgage functions as a result of they’re each occupied all year long and to differentiate them from a trip property.”
Trump and Schiff have lengthy been political foes, which was underscored throughout Trump’s first administration when Schiff served because the lead Home supervisor in the course of the first impeachment trial towards Trump in 2020, and when Schiff repeatedly promoted claims that Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign colluded with Russia.
WATCH: ADAM SCHIFF SILENT AFTER TRUMP ACCUSED HIM OF MORTGAGE FRAUD
Days after Trump first posted about Schiff’s mortgages in Maryland and California, the president’s Director of Nationwide Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified paperwork that reportedly present “overwhelming proof” that then-President Barack Obama and his nationwide safety group laid the groundwork for what could be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe after Trump’s election win towards former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Schiff was an extremely vocal lawmaker amid the Russian collusion claims, most notably when the Home censured him in 2023 over his promotion that Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign colluded with Russia. Schiff served within the Home representing California from 2001 to 2024, when he was sworn-in as a senator after his profitable 2024 marketing campaign to serve within the nation’s higher chamber.

Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard talks to reporters within the Brady Press Briefing Room concerning her launch of declassified paperwork associated to the Russia hoax. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Pictures)
Schiff served because the rating member of the Home intelligence committee from 2015 to 2019, earlier than changing into the committee’s chair from 2019 to 2023. In that position, he was stored updated on labeled supplies surrounding the Russian collusion claims.
Trump additionally lately invoked Gabbard’s alleged revelations whereas attacking Schiff over his mortgages in one other Fact Social put up.
FEDERAL HOUSING OFFICIAL SUBMITTED SCHIFF CRIMINAL REFERRAL TO DOJ OVER MORTGAGE DOCUMENTS
Trump went on to ominously warn throughout a White Home occasion final week that Schiff has “a number of different issues far worse than” his mortgage inquiry.
“He defrauded banks and insurance coverage firms and the federal authorities, but it surely’s, quite simple. It is mortgage mortgage fraud … However he has a number of different issues far worse than that. So no Adam Schiff, they’ve him 100% on mortgage fraud,” Trump stated final Tuesday from the White Home whereas internet hosting a gathering with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Jacobson stated that Democrats have boxed themselves out of trying to assert that Trump is concentrating on a political foe over the mortgage prison referral as a result of the celebration had spent the final decade launching “lawfare” at Trump.
“One of many ironies right here that I feel everyone understands, is that Democrats launched a lawfare marketing campaign towards Donald Trump. And it did not simply begin as soon as he took workplace this 12 months. It has been occurring for a decade,” he stated.
“They’ve used each device accessible to attempt to destroy him, together with by way of prison prosecutions, together with by way of federal investigations. . . . They’ve actually tried to get him. And for them now to say, ‘oh, simply because we did that to you for 10 years does not provide the proper to do it to us.’ Legally, that is sound. I imply, you must show your case in court docket. However politically, I do not suppose that is going to fly. Democrats screaming that Donald Trump is weaponizing prosecutors towards them just isn’t going to actually impress lots of people.”

President Donald Trump arrives on the South Garden of the White Home from Camp David on Monday, June 9, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc.)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Jacobson speculated that there’ll probably be extra woes for Schiff within the coming days, however that potential authorized circumstances hinge on prosecutors.
“We do not know the place that is going forward, after all, but it surely does seem that Adam Schiff is within the sights of Donald Trump. No shock about that, as a result of Donald Trump has been within the sights of Adam Schiff for a decade. So, I absolutely count on that there will likely be extra right here. The query goes to be actually although, as soon as it strikes into the realm of prosecution, what are the prosecutors going to do?”
The Division of Justice declined remark when approached about probably investigating and taking on the Schiff case. Schiff’s workplace didn’t reply to Fox Digital’s request for remark.
Fox Information Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Peter Doocy contributed to this report.