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Timeline of 'scam artist' Adam Schiff's mortgage fraud allegations stretching back years
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Longtime President Donald Trump political foe Democrat California Sen. Adam Schiff was referred to the Department of Justice to face criminal prosecution over alleged mortgage fraud that reportedly stretches back years.
Schiff, who was elected to the Senate in the 2024 election cycle following decades as a House lawmaker, is under scrutiny after the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice in May sounding the alarm that in “multiple instances,” Schiff allegedly “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property.”
FHFA is an independent federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank System.
This week, Trump publicly lambasted Schiff over the alleged mortgage fraud, while Fannie Mae’s financial crimes investigations concluded Monday in a letter to the FHFA that Schiff allegedly engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” on five Fannie Mae loans, Fox News Digital previously reported this week.
WATCH: ADAM SCHIFF SILENT AFTER TRUMP ACCUSED HIM OF MORTGAGE FRAUD
President Donald Trump highlighted 2024 allegations of mortgage fraud against Sen. Adam Schiff, claims that Schiff has denied. (Getty Images)
“I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist,” Trump posted to Truth Social Tuesday. “And now I learn that Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud.”
“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. The FRAUD began with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued through multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020.”
Potomac, Maryland, is a suburb of Washington, D.C., located just more than 10 miles away from the nation’s capital across the Maryland border.
FEDERAL HOUSING OFFICIAL SUBMITTED SCHIFF CRIMINAL REFERRAL TO DOJ OVER MORTGAGE DOCUMENTS
Trump and Schiff have long been political foes, which was underscored during Trump’s first administration when Schiff served as the lead House manager during the first impeachment trial against Trump in 2020 and when Schiff repeatedly promoted claims that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia
Adam Schiff served as the lead House manager during the first impeachment trial against Trump in 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital took a look back at the timeline of Schiff’s Maryland home, and when the public was first made aware in 2023 of allegations that Schiff claimed a more than 3,000-square-foot home in the suburbs of Washington as his primary residence, while taking a homeowner’s tax exemption on a small condo in his home state of California.
TRUMP ACCUSES ‘SCAM ARTIST’ SCHIFF OF LYING ABOUT MARYLAND HOME TO COMMIT MORTGAGE FRAUD
Timeline:
- 2003: Then-Congressman Schiff and his wife purchase a home in Potomac, Maryland, for $870,000, and sign a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage agreement for $610,000 at a rate of 5.625% over a term of 30 years. The mortgage asserts the property was their primary and principal residence, according to the FHFA letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
- 2009: Schiff purchases Burbank, California, condominium, CNN later reported in 2023. Schiff was serving as a U.S. House lawmaker at the time, representing the state’s 29th District in Southern California outside of Los Angeles.
- 2009; 2011; 2012; 2013: Schiff reaffirms the Potomac, Maryland, home as their principal residence in mortgage refinancing those years, according to the FHFA letter to the DOJ.
- 2017: Schiff reportedly pays his California property taxes with a check showing his Maryland address, CNN reported in 2023.
- 2020: Schiff refinances his mortgage and lists his Maryland home as his secondary residence.
- June 2022: Schiff posts a photo of himself in front of his Maryland home wearing an “I voted” sticker on the day of Los Angeles’ Democratic primary for the mayoral race. He captioned the photo on X: “California! Los Angeles! Voters are voting!” Schiff’s spokesperson explained to CNN in 2023 that he voted by mail that year and was in Washington for votes.
- January 2023: Schiff announces Senate run after then-California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced she would not run for re-election.
- November 2023: CNN publishes first news article detailing that Schiff had claimed the Maryland home as a primary residence while also taking a homeowner’s tax exemption on the Burbank, California, condo. The outlet reported that real estate legal experts found Schiff was “likely not in any legal jeopardy” over the matter, but that the issue could hamper his election efforts with California voters.
- November 2023: Schiff’s Senate campaign responds to the mortgage claims, saying, “Adam’s primary residence is Burbank, California, and will remain so when he wins the Senate seat. As Adam has discussed openly many times over the years, including in his recent New York Times best-selling book, he and (his wife) made the difficult decision to move their family to the D.C. area to spend more time with his children while doing his job.” The campaign added that Schiff’s two properties were listed as primary residences “for loan purposes because they are both occupied throughout the year and to distinguish them from a vacation property.”
- 2024: Schiff wins Senate election and Trump wins presidential election.
- May 2025: FHFA Director William Pulte sends the criminal referral over Schiff’s mortgages and residence to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
- July 14, 2025: Pulte receives a memo from the Fannie Mae financial crimes investigations concluding that Schiff allegedly engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” on five Fannie Mae loans, Fox News Digital learned.
- July 15, 2025: Trump blasts Schiff on Truth Social over the mortgage claims, calling the senator a “scam artist.”
- July 15, 2025: Schiff responds to Trump’s message on X, saying, “This is just Donald Trump’s latest attempt at political retaliation against his perceived enemies. So it is not a surprise, only how weak this false allegation turns out to be. And much as Trump may hope, this smear will not distract from his Epstein files problem.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a lunch with African leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
LETITIA JAMES REAPS WHAT SHE SOWS AFTER LEVELING ‘LAUGHABLE’ CASE AT TRUMP: EXPERT
The investigation into Schiff’s mortgages and homes follows a similar mortgage investigation earlier in 2025 focused on New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is also a longtime political Trump foe. The FHFA sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice in April arguing the attorney general appeared to have falsified mortgage records to obtain more favorable loans.
At the heart of that case is a Norfolk, Virginia, home James purchased in 2023, which she identified on mortgage documents and a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac form as a property that would serve as her primary residence, according to the FHFA letter from April. James is legally required to live in New York as a statewide elected official in the Empire State.
Fox News Digital reached out to Schiff’s office for additional comment on the matter, but did not immediately receive a reply.
Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced multiple hate crime charges, as well as assault and vandalism charges against an Oakland man for an incident that happened in the Castro District last month.
On Thursday afternoon, Hans Haken pleaded not guilty to one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, one count of vandalism, one count of hit-and-run, and one count of reckless driving.
Prosecutors also allege each of the felony assault counts was a hate crime.
“In San Francisco, we have zero tolerance for any hate, hateful acts, certainly that cross the criminal line, and we will do everything that we can to protect our residents from these types of incidents,” said Jenkins at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
It was on May 16, around 5:30 p.m., when prosecutors say Haken spray-painted a homophobic slur on the wall next to Chartreuse by Roje, a gay-owned floral boutique in San Francisco’s Castro District.
“It was a reminder that even though we’re here in Castro, San Francisco, we live in this well-protected bubble that we have created very passionately and strongly, that that can still happen,” said Jeffrey Dumlao, the owner of Chartreuse by Roje. “If anything, that is what’s scary, that it happened here in broad daylight of all times.”
Dumlao says his store had already closed by that time, but Justin Donnelly, who lives above the store, heard the spray-painting and came down to confront the man and tell him to stop.
“He just became very agitated,” Donnelly said. “I tried to remain calm and just tell him, like, sir, you know, I don’t, I don’t, I’m not involved in any of that. I’m just, I live here, right, and this is, this is my home, and you know, this is vandalism.”
Donnelly says when he took a picture of Haken’s license plate, Haken got in the car and tried to run him over. Then, prosecutors say he got out of the car and punched Donnelly in the jaw while uttering homophobic slurs.
“I’m definitely doing a lot better than I was. It’s been, I don’t know, a month or so,” Donnelly said.
He says the incident has shaken him, but he’s been lifted up by the community’s support and law enforcement.
“A lot of people have said, ‘oh my god, I can’t believe something like this could happen in San Francisco, of all places.’ And the fact is that something like this can happen anywhere, but in San Francisco, we don’t stand for it, and we deal with it, so, so that makes me feel good,” Donnelly said.
In announcing the charges, Jenkins pointed out the climate in this country has become more hostile to the LGBTQ community. She says that makes it even more important for elected officials to protect that community, just like they do every other community.
Factors such as declining birth rates and families moving out of the city are contributing to declining enrollment at Denver Public Schools. In turn, it’s reshaping the district’s future.
“I think we’re in a good position, but it’s responsible for us to always be looking in the future and knowing we have to make some adjustments,” said Chuck Carpenter, the district’s CFO.
In a two-year span between this past school year and next, DPS expects a decline in enrollment of around 1,700 students.
“We haven’t really seen anything like this,” said Carpenter in response to the consistent decline.
Because of this trend, the district is facing a $28 million structural deficit over the next five years.
“We have a balanced budget now, and we’re not predicting that we’ll have an unbalanced budget in three years,” said Carpenter. “We’re saying we need to make adjustments over the next three, four years, so that our budgets are balanced.”
DPS’s Director of Campus Planning, Andrew Huber, told CBS Colorado in an interview last month that those adjustments will likely include closing down more schools.
“Additional school closures will be necessary in the upcoming years. When exactly that would be is hard to forecast right now,” said Huber.
The district’s CFO says his biggest takeaway from a recent round of closures is to make sure to give families options for what’s next.
“No one wants their school closed, but the second-best option isn’t going to be the same for every family,” said Carpenter.
This issue could be one Denver faces for years to come.
“We sort of say, how many kids are born here? Because in five years, those kids will be kindergartners,” Carpenter added.
The city’s birth rate peaked in 2005, meaning those babies have already graduated high school. And, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, more young families move out of Denver and into surrounding counties than move into the city.
“I think school consolidation is very — I understand why people want to talk about it, but I think it’s more about, like, how do we make sure that the programs that are offered are rich programs,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter also says the district is closely monitoring some potential cuts to federal grants for students of poverty and language learners. He says those decisions will be made by October for the start of the new fiscal year, and cuts would have a “terrible” impact.
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