President Donald Trump called for California Senator Adam Schiff to be prosecuted for what he described as “mortgage fraud” as he claimed his longtime political foe has broken the law by previously claiming a home in suburban Maryland as his primary residence.
Writing on Truth Social Tuesday, the president claimed he’d been given information from the federally-backed mortgage lender Fannie Mae indicating that Schiff, who led the investigation leading to the president’s first impeachment trial, “has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud.”
He accused the first-term senator of having falsely claimed a Potomac, Maryland, house he has owned for decades as a “primary residence” while representing California in Congress, thereby gaining a more favorable interest rate than he otherwise would have been entitled to.
“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. I always knew Adam Schiff was a Crook,” Trump said.
The Democrat accused Trump of a “baseless attempt at political retribution” in a post on X Tuesday.
“Since I led his first impeachment, Trump has repeatedly called for me to be arrested for treason,” Schiff said. “So in a way, I guess this is a bit of a letdown. And this baseless attempt at political retribution won’t stop me from holding him accountable. Not by a long shot.”
The president added that the alleged “fraud” ran from a 2009 refinancing of Schiff’s Maryland house until he designated it as a second home in 2020.
Schiff has represented California in D.C. since 2001 and, for almost all of that time, has kept a home in Maryland, where he has lived with his wife and where his children have attended public schools. He also keeps a condominium in Burbank, California, which is part of his former Los Angeles-area House district.
It was once common for House and Senate members to bring their families to Washington before the practice was turned into fodder for campaign attacks by Republicans during the 1994 midterm elections. In recent years, most members have kept their families back home for fear of political fallout, with some going so far as to sleep in their offices to avoid establishing any roots in the nation’s capital.
Other senators have faced questions over their Capital-area residences. Schiff’s predecessor, former senator Laphonza Butler, was forced to re-register to vote in California after she was appointed to the seat following the death of longtime California senator Dianne Feinstein. Butler, a longtime Democratic activist and operative, had longstanding ties to the Golden State but had been registered to vote in the Washington area.
Schiff’s ownership of the Maryland property was reported on during his Senate campaign by CNN, which at the time reported that the then-House member wasn’t likely to face any legal repercussions because the law at issue is ambiguous when it comes to the definition of a primary residence.
But Marisol Samayoa, Schiff’s spokesperson during the campaign and his current press secretary, told CNN last year that he has claimed both his properties as primary residences for mortgage purposes “because they are both occupied throughout the year and to distinguish them from a vacation property.”
Schiff has been a top political target of Trump’s since his first administration and is often on the receiving end of the president’s ire.
Schiff played a prominent role in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and served as chair of the House Intelligence Committee in 2019. Trump and Republicans ramped up their attacks on Schiff after special counsel Robert Mueller did not find sufficient evidence of criminal conspiracy.
The president hurled numerous insults at Schiff, including “pencil neck,” “Schifty Schiff” and “watermelon head.”
The Democrat became the lead prosecutor in 2020 at Trump’s first impeachment trial, where Trump was acquitted by the Senate. Schiff also served on the House’s January 6 committee.
