Federal prosecutors spent more than an hour Thursday questioning a California Republican activist about her contact with Trump administration officials over their mortgage fraud investigation into Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), the woman told The Washington Post.
The interview with Christine Bish — a GOP activist and real estate agent in California who is running for Congress — appeared to focus on whether Justice Department official Ed Martin and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte used inappropriate tactics to launch probes of President Donald Trump’s political foes, including Schiff. Federal officials appeared to be questioning whether Martin and Pulte divulged information about an ongoing criminal investigation of Schiff with people who were not authorized to be a part of it, according to a subpoena issued in the case and another person familiar with the interview, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Pulte has accused Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) and others of committing fraud by claiming multiple homes in documents as their primary residences, which can sometimes help buyers secure lower mortgage rates. He has referred several cases to the Justice Department for prosecution, though Schiff so far has not been indicted. James faces two charges linked to Pulte’s claims, and she — like Schiff — has denied any wrongdoing.
The investigation into Schiff may have gotten a boost from Bish, who told The Post that she has been examining public records around Schiff’s two homes for years and submitted her findings to a tip line that Pulte had set up seeking evidence of mortgage fraud across the country. In August, Bish re-upped on social media one of Pulte’s public calls to report tips about fraud, saying: “I did and Schiff is now under federal investigation.”
Bish said she arrived at the meeting with prosecutors Thursday morning expecting to be asked about Schiff and his mortgages. Instead, she said, she was questioned about Pulte and Martin, two of Trump’s staunchest and most outspoken loyalists. Bish did not appear in front of a grand jury Thursday, but said prosecutors told her to return to Maryland in the future to testify.
“They seemed more interested in the investigators and then actually getting to the bottom of my complaint,” she said. “They were very polite, very professional, but not focused on what I believe to be the focus of the investigation.”
Justice Department officials have struggled so far to build a viable case against Schiff, unable to find ample evidence showing that he intentionally committed fraud, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case. Legal experts say the case against James could also be tough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
Bish said she received a subpoena last Friday demanding that she appear in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, Thursday morning. The subpoena asked Bish to provide any communication and documentation she had with people claiming to be Pulte, his chief of staff, or anyone saying they are working at the direction of Martin, the Justice Department, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, according to a copy of the subpoena reviewed by The Post. In an unprecedented move, Pulte made himself the chairman of the boards of both Fannie and Freddie, mortgage giants that have been under government oversight since the financial crisis in 2008.
“I kept asking, why are we doing this? I am here to answer questions about the documentation and my allegations against Adam Schiff,” Bish said. “They were more concerned with my communications — if any — with Pulte or Ed Martin or anyone else who worked with them. I had been very clear I was doing this on my own, and none of these people were in office when I started.”
Pulte did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. A representative for Schiff declined to comment.
The subpoena also asked for any contact Bish may have had with Scott Strauss — a former Justice Department prosecutor who was pushed out of his job after attempting to launch investigations of baseless voter-fraud conspiracy theories tied to the 2020 election, according to three other people familiar with the matter, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive subjects. It also sought any communication Bish had with Robert Bowes, a former banker who was a political appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the first Trump administration but does not currently appear to have any formal ties to Pulte or FHFA.
Bish told The Post she has not had any direct contact with Martin or Pulte. She said Pulte called her once over the summer, but she was recovering from a medical procedure and did not return his call.
Bish said she spoke with Bowes during the Schiff investigation and had also been contacted by Neil McCabe, who works closely with Martin at the Justice Department. She said McCabe identified himself as an investigator, though at the time, Bish said she wasn’t aware that he worked at the department. She said she previously had connected with McCabe during the Biden administration, when he was a reporter at a conservative news outlet reporting on allegations that Schiff committed mortgage fraud.
Criminal investigations are generally conducted by prosecutors and federal law enforcement agents. Federal guidelines prohibit Justice Department officials from speaking publicly about investigations or discussing secretive grand matters. Those strict guidelines are intended to ensure public statements don’t compromise the integrity of a case.
McCabe declined to comment Thursday. Strauss and Bowes could not be reached for comment.
Bish was the Republican nominee in 2024 for a congressional seat in Sacramento and its northern suburbs. She lost by 15 points to Democratic incumbent Rep. Ami Bera.
While Martin — a political appointee — was named as a special prosecutor in the Schiff case, at least one career staffer in the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland has been handling the day-to-day developments with the investigation and conducted the interview Thursday.
In July, Trump publicly accused Schiff — who had led impeachment proceedings against the president as a House member during Trump’s first term — of mortgage fraud. In a message on Truth Social, Trump said Fannie Mae’s financial crimes division found that Schiff had a “sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud,” which the president claimed, without specifics, involved misstating which home Schiff used as a primary residence. A day earlier, Pulte had received a confidential Fannie Mae memo about Schiff, shared with The Post by an administration official on the condition of anonymity.
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