The F.B.I. has subpoenaed a Republican activist from California who claims to be the “key witness” in the mortgage fraud investigation into Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, demanding details of her interactions with two Trump administration officials who targeted the lawmaker, according to a document reviewed by The New York Times.
The subpoena appeared to be an effort by the Justice Department to identify any administration officials or their subordinates or intermediaries who might have shared information about the inquiry into Mr. Schiff with people not formally involved in it. The concern is that such sharing could taint the investigation, which is already seen as weak and politically motivated, according to people familiar with the move.
The subpoena to the activist, Christine Bish, who is running for Congress in California, demanded all of her communications with Bill Pulte, the Trump ally who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency and has pushed for mortgage fraud investigations into several Democrats who have run afoul of President Trump, including Mr. Schiff.
It also requested that Ms. Bish turn over documents about any interactions she might have had with anyone “acting at the direction” of Ed Martin, an ally of Mr. Pulte’s and the chief of the Justice Department’s weaponization working group, which was established to go after Mr. Trump’s opponents.
Senior Justice Department officials had knowledge of the subpoena before it was issued, two people familiar with the situation said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency did not immediately return a request for comment.
The subpoena indicates that Ms. Bish spoke last month to both the F.B.I. and the inspector general’s office at Mr. Pulte’s agency about Mr. Schiff — and seems to be an effort to follow up on the information she provided.
In an interview on Thursday, Ms. Bish, who lives in Sacramento County, said she showed up at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Md., that same morning thinking she would be testifying in front of a grand jury about the inquiry into Mr. Schiff.
Instead, she said, she was pulled into a conference room by two federal agents and a prosecutor who asked her questions about her ties to Mr. Pulte and Mr. Martin.
“It was bizarre — I thought I was there to talk about the Adam Schiff case,” she said. “But they seemed more interested in my personal communications with Ed Martin and director Pulte.”
Ms. Bish maintained that she had never spoken directly to either man, though she had communicated with two others — Robert Bowes and Scott Strauss, who she said worked for Mr. Pulte. The subpoena she received also sought any communications she might have had with them.
Mr. Bowes appears to have held a senior job at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during Mr. Trump’s first term in office. It remains unclear what connection Mr. Strauss has to Mr. Pulte or federal housing agencies.
In a post on social media earlier this week, Ms. Bish said she was the “author of the report” that led to Mr. Pulte’s referral of Mr. Schiff to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. She also claimed to be the “key witness” in the inquiry, adding that she would soon be in Maryland “to lock down the key points.”
But when she arrived at the courthouse in Greenbelt, she said she was surprised that she was questioned about any of the men, thinking they were all allies in the effort to bring a case against Mr. Schiff.
“It was just so strange,” she said. “I asked the agents, ‘Why are you interviewing me about people on your own team?’”
The investigation into Mr. Schiff, a longtime political opponent of Mr. Trump’s, is being handled by Kelly O. Hayes, the U.S. attorney in Maryland, who has come under pressure to deliver an indictment like those that have already been filed against other Trump adversaries.
On Nov. 10, Ms. Hayes wrote to the general counsel of the House, requesting Mr. Schiff’s correspondence in 2020 related to reporting his mortgage information on ethics forms, and supporting materials related to his claim in 2010 that he lived at his house in Maryland most of the year, according to documents obtained by The Times.
Mr. Trump mentioned Mr. Schiff in an angry social media post in late September, ordering his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to bring charges against the senator and two of the president’s other opponents, Letitia James, the New York attorney general, and James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director.
Ms. James was charged last month in the Eastern District of Virginia with bank fraud and making false statements in loan documents that said she planned to use a home she had purchased in Norfolk, Va., as a secondary residence.
In September, prosecutors in the same U.S. attorney’s office filed an indictment charging Mr. Comey with lying to and obstructing Congress during testimony he gave in 2020 to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Jonah E. Bromwich contributed reporting, and Georgia Gee contributed research.
Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice for The Times and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons.
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