Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Mark Schiefelbein/AP
When New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Donald Trump of committing fraud by lying to banks and insurance companies about the value of his properties, he never really denied it. Everyone does things like this, his lawyers argued, and no bank ever lost money—so what’s the big deal?
All three Trump cabinet members denied any wrongdoing.
But now that he’s in back office, Trump seems to have decided that telling banks things that aren’t true while seeking loans is a very big deal after all. His administration has launched investigations into James herself and Lisa Cook, a Biden-appointee on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, alleging both women improperly told banks that two different properties each owned were both their primary residences. He’s previously made similar accusations against one of his main Democratic antagonists in Congress, California Sen. Adam Schiff.
The investigations were launched with the help of Bill Pulte, the Trump appointee leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency. On Friday, Reuters reported that relatives of Pulte appear to have done the very thing Trump and Pulte are targeting James and Cook over. Reuters says that Pulte’s father and stepmother had simultaneously requested “homestead exemptions”—a discount on property taxes for a primary residence—on two different properties, one in Michigan and one in Florida. It’s not clear if it is illegal to do so, and in some cases, tax experts told Reuters, it is permissible—for example if a married couple live separately. But after being asked about the Pultes’ situation, local tax officials promptly revoked the exemption on the Michigan house, Reuters reported.
The news about Pulte’s relatives comes after a Thursday report from ProPublica revealed that three different members of Trump’s cabinet appear to have simultaneously claimed multiple properties as their primary residence. ProPublica found records showing Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin all claimed two different homes as primary residences. Chavez-DeRemer made the claims about her two homes (one in the Oregon Congressional district she previously represented, and one in Arizona, where she is known to vacation) within two months of each other. All three cabinet members denied any wrongdoing and accused ProPublica of liberal bias.
According to ProPublica, it is not necessarily illegal to claim multiple homes as your primary residence at the same time—and in some cases, it may be encouraged by bank employees—but it is generally frowned upon. Banks typically offer reduced mortgage rates for primary residences, and higher rates for second homes; the practice stems from a belief that people are more likely to diligently repay the mortgage on a property if they live in it full-time.
