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Fannie Mae Regulator Puts 35 Workers on Leave

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Fannie Mae Regulator Puts 35 Workers on Leave

The newly appointed head of one of the nation’s top housing regulators is moving quickly to reshape not only the agency but also Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-controlled mortgage finance giants he oversees.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, now under the direction of William Pulte, placed 35 unionized employees on administrative leave over the past two days, according to an email sent to members on Wednesday evening by the National Treasury Employees Union. The email, which was reviewed by The New York Times, said there had been no advance notice for the employees, who work in consumer protection, equal opportunity and research units.

In a statement, the housing regulator said, “We are streamlining our Agency and its naming conventions, but F.H.F.A. will continue to follow all mandated laws.”

The regulator appears to be among the many federal agencies that are taking steps to comply with the Trump administration’s aim to cut costs by reducing the size of the government work force. The pace and scale of the cutbacks have sparked protests from employees and legislators.

Gray Kimbrough, an F.H.F.A. economist who was not among the affected employees, said in a social media post on Wednesday that those placed on leave had been rushed out of the building and given no time to pack up their personal items.

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The National Treasury Employees Union represents about 500 of the more than 600 employees at the housing regulator, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance firms that have been under the control of the federal government since the 2008 financial crisis.

Fannie and Freddie do not write mortgages but they are critical players in the nation’s $12 trillion mortgage market. The firms buy mortgages from banks and package them into bonds that are sold to institutional investors and insured against a default of the underlying loans. This helps keep the mortgage market running by freeing up capital for banks to write more home loans.

On Monday, Mr. Pulte ousted 14 board members at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and named himself chairman of the boards at both companies, which together employ roughly 15,000 nonunion workers. He sent an email on Wednesday to Freddie employees notifying them that they would be expected to work in the office five days a week beginning May 1. Employees at Fannie received an email on Thursday informing them they would soon be notified about a new return-to-office policy. Copies of both emails were reviewed by The Times.

Mr. Pulte, an heir of the founder of PulteGroup, one of the largest American home builders, began his new job with a promise to work to make home-buying more affordable. Mr. Pulte said he would “ensure that the dream of homeownership becomes a reality for as many Americans as possible,” in a news release announcing his swearing-in as director of the housing regulator.

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Noem vows criminal prosecution after catching alleged DHS ‘prolific leaker’

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Noem vows criminal prosecution after catching alleged DHS ‘prolific leaker’

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday said another “prolific leaker” who disclosed information that put federal law enforcement officers at risk has been caught. 

Noem announced the revelation in a post on X.

“I plan to refer this individual to @TheJusticeDept for criminal prosecution,” Noem wrote. “We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment, or status as a career civil servant—we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”

NOEM SAYS SHE GRIEVES FOR FAMILY AFTER CBP-RELATED SHOOTING IN MINNEAPOLIS, VOWS THOROUGH INVESTIGATION

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Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is seen during an assumption of command ceremony at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026.   (Luke Johnson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Noem has made the prosecutions of leakers within her agency a top priority as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on illegal immigration. 

Weeks after President Trump took office last year, she announced that two people in the Department of Homeland Security have been accused of disclosing DHS operations.

DHS SLAMS DEMS FOR COMPLAINING ABOUT IMMIGRATION LAW: ‘IT IS QUITE LITERALLY THEIR JOB TO CHANGE IT’

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday said another “prolific leaker” had been caught disclosing information that put federal law enforcement officers at risk.  (Getty Images/Alex Brandon)

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“We have identified two leakers of information here at the Department of Homeland Security who have been telling individuals about our operations and putting law enforcement lives in jeopardy,” Noem said in a video at the time. “We plan to prosecute these two individuals and hold them accountable for what they’ve done.”

“We’re going to continue to do all that we can to keep America safe,” she added. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Noem has said the leaks endanger DHS law enforcement officers, who face an 8,000% increase in death threats against them.

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California leaders decry Trump call to ‘nationalize’ election, say they’re ready to resist

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California leaders decry Trump call to ‘nationalize’ election, say they’re ready to resist

President Trump’s repeated calls to “nationalize” elections drew swift resistance from California officials this week, who said they are ready to fight should the federal government attempt to assert control over the state’s voting system.

“We would win that on Day One,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta told The Times. “We would go into court and we would get a restraining order within hours, because the U.S. Constitution says that states predominantly determine the time, place and manner of elections, not the president.”

“We’re prepared to do whatever we have to do in California,” said California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, whose office recently fought off a Justice Department lawsuit demanding California’s voter rolls and other sensitive voter information.

Both Bonta and Weber said their offices are closely watching for any federal action that could affect voting in California, including efforts to seize election records, as the FBI recently did in Georgia, or target the counting of mailed ballots, which Trump has baselessly alleged are a major source of fraud.

Weber said California plays an outsized role in the nation and is “the place that people want to beat,” including through illegitimate court challenges to undermine the state’s vote after elections, but California has fought off such challenges in the past and is ready to do it again.

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“There’s a cadre of attorneys that are already, that are always prepared during our elections to hit the courts to defend anything that we’re doing,” she said. “Our election teams, they do cross the T’s, dot the I’s. They are on it.”

“We have attorneys ready to be deployed wherever there’s an issue,” Bonta said, noting that his office is in touch with local election officials to ensure a rapid response if necessary.

The standoff reflects an extraordinary deterioration of trust and cooperation in elections that has existed between state and federal officials for generations — and follows a remarkable doubling down by Trump after his initial remarks about taking over the elections raised alarm.

Trump has long alleged, without evidence and despite multiple independent reviews concluding the opposite, that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He has alleged, again without evidence, that millions of fraudulent votes were cast, including by non-citizen voters, and that blue states looked the other way to gain political advantage.

Last week, the Justice Department acted on those claims by raiding the Fulton County, Ga., elections hub and seizing 2020 ballots. The department also has sued states, including California, for their voter rolls, and is defending a Trump executive order seeking to end mail voting and add new proof of citizenship requirements for registering to vote, which California and other states have sued to block.

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On Monday, Trump further escalated his pressure campaign by saying on former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s podcast that Republicans should “take over the voting in at least 15 places,” alleging that voting irregularities in what he called “crooked states” are hurting his party. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

On Tuesday morning, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, appeared to try to walk back Trump’s comments, saying he had been referring to the Save Act, a measure being pushed by Republicans in Congress to codify Trump’s proof-of-citizenship requirements. However, Trump doubled down later that day, telling reporters that if states “can’t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.”

Bonta said Trump’s comments were a serious escalation, not just bluster: “We always knew they were going to come after us on something, so this is just an affirmation of that — and maybe they are getting a step closer.”

Bonta said he will especially be monitoring races in the state’s swing congressional districts, which could play a role in determining control of Congress and therefore be a target of legal challenges.

“The strategy of going after California isn’t rational unless you’re going after a couple of congressional seats that you think will make a difference in the balance of power in the House,” Bonta said.

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California Democrats in Congress have stressed that the state’s elections are safe and reliable, but also started to express unease about upcoming election interference by the administration.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) said on “Meet the Press” last week that he believes the administration will try to use “every tool in their toolbox to try and interfere,” but that the American people will “overcome it by having a battalion of lawyers at the polls.”

California Sen. Adam Schiff this week said recent actions by the Trump administration — including the Fulton County raid, where Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard put Trump on the phone with agents — were “wrong” and set off “alarm bells about their willingness to interfere in the next election.”

Democrats have called on their Republican colleagues to help push back against such interference.

“When he says that we should nationalize the elections and Republicans should take over, and you don’t make a peep? What is going on here?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday. “This is the path that has ruined many a democracy, and our democracy is deep and strong, but it requires — and allows — resistance to these things. Verbal resistance, electoral resistance. Where are you?”

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Some Republicans have voiced their disagreement with Trump. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Tuesday that he is “supportive of only citizens voting and showing ID at polling places,” but is “not in favor of federalizing elections,” which he called “a constitutional issue.”

“I’m a big believer in decentralized and distributed power. And I think it’s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one,” he said.

However, other Republican leaders have commiserated with Trump over his qualms with state-run elections. House Majority Leader Mike Johnson (R-La.), for example, took aim at California’s system for counting mail-in ballots in the days following elections, questioning why such counting led to Republican leads in House races being “magically whittled away until their leads were lost.”

“It looks on its face to be fraudulent. Can I prove that? No, because it happened so far upstream,” Johnson said. “But we need more confidence in the American people in the election system.”

Elections experts expressed dismay over Johnson’s comments, calling them baseless and illogical. The fact that candidates who are leading in votes can fall behind as more votes are counted is not magic but math, they said — with Democrats agreeing.

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“Speaker Johnson seems to be confused, so let me break it down. California’s elections are safe and secure. The point of an election is to make sure *every* eligible vote cast is counted, not to count fast,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) wrote on X. “We don’t just quit while we’re ahead. It’s called a democracy.”

Democrats have also expressed concern that the administration could use the U.S. Postal Service to interfere with counting mail-in ballots. They have specifically raised questions about a rule issued by the postal service last December that deems mail postmarked on the day it is processed by USPS, rather than the day it is received — which would impact mail-in ballots in places such as California, where ballots must be postmarked by election day to be counted.

“Election officials are already concerned and warning that this change could ultimately lead to higher mailed ballots being rejected,” Senate Democrats wrote to U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General David Steiner last month.

Some experts and state officials said voters should make a plan to vote early, and consider dropping their ballots in state ballot drop boxes or delivering them directly to voting centers.

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Video: What Does the F.B.I. Raid in Georgia Mean for Elections?

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Video: What Does the F.B.I. Raid in Georgia Mean for Elections?

new video loaded: What Does the F.B.I. Raid in Georgia Mean for Elections?

The F.B.I seized ballots, voter rolls and scanner images from Fulton County, Ga. Our politics reporter Nick Corasaniti explains how the seizure signals President Trump’s willingness to use the powers of federal law enforcement to intervene in election matters, as the 2026 midterms approach.

By Nick Corasaniti, Nikolay Nikolov, Alexandra Ostasiewicz, Joey Sendaydiego, Gilad Thaler and Thomas Vollkommer

February 4, 2026

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