Trump accused Lisa Cook, Letitia James of mortgage fraud — but his own Cabinet did the same

“They’re shameless about it,” said Democratic strategist Joel Payne following a report that concluded Trump administration officials listed multiple properties as primary residences.

President Donald Trump and his administration have targeted his perceived political enemies in recent months, accusing them of committing fraud for listing multiple mortgages as their primary residences. The alleged actions resulted in Bill Pulte, Trump’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, issuing criminal referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Fraud will not be tolerated in President Trump’s housing market,” Pulte previously warned.

On the Trump administration’s hit list is Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, whom the president attempted to fire last week over the allegations. On Thursday, the DOJ launched a criminal investigation of Cook and issued subpoenas to determine whether she submitted fraudulent mortgage applications. Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board and appointed by former President Joe Biden, filed a lawsuit to keep her 14-year-long position with the U.S. central bank.

In April, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully prosecuted Trump in a civil fraud case related to his real estate business, was also referred for criminal investigation for allegedly listing a Virginia property as her primary residence in addition to her residence in New York. Trump and Pulte also accused Democratic U.S. Senator Adam Schiff of California, a longtime political foe of the president, of similar mortgage fraud for a home purchased in Maryland.

Despite Democrats being targeted for alleged mortgage fraud, a new investigative report from ProPublica found that at least three members of Trump’s Cabinet have similarly listed multiple homes as their primary residences based on mortgage records. Primary residences typically see lower interest rates than those that are not.

The outlet determined that Trump’s Labor Secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has two primary residences, including one near a country club in Arizona, where she vacations. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary-residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C., and Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary-residence mortgage in Long Island and another in Washington, D.C., ProPublica reports.

ProPublica also reports that, contrary to the Trump administration’s suggestion, claiming primary residences on different mortgages at the same time is often legal and rarely prosecuted, according to real estate experts.

In response to the investigative report, a White House spokesperson told the outlet, “Secretary DeRemer, Secretary Duffy, and Administrator Zeldin own multiple residences, and they have followed the law and they are fully compliant with all ethical obligations.” The spokesperson added, “Unlike [Fed Gov.] Lisa ‘Corrupt’ Cook, who blatantly and intentionally committed mortgage fraud.”

The White House dismissed the report as a “hit piece” and accused ProPublica of attempting to “smear President Trump’s incredible Cabinet members.”

Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist, said that aside from Senator Schiff, the Trump administration’s focus on Cook and James feels like an intentional targeting of Black people, specifically Black women. However, the larger concern, he said, aside from hypocrisy, is that it represents “the weaponization of government and the weaponization of the law, and of the idiosyncrasies of the law.”

“That’s what this administration becomes very proficient at…they’re shameless about it,” Payne told theGrio.

The Democratic insider lamented that outside of shaming the administration and litigation “here or there,” there’s not much that can be done to stop Trump from what Payne sees as an abuse of executive power.

“And it’s not just abusing power to target their political enemies,” he added. “It’s abusing power to enact a very unpopular political agenda.”