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A senior Trump administration official has referred Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., to the Justice Department over allegations of mortgage fraud, escalating a widening series of politically charged accusations targeting some of former President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics.
The referral was made by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who in recent months has accused several high-ranking Democratic officials — including New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Sen. Adam Schiff — of financial or ethical misconduct. James was indicted on fraud charges last month, and Schiff remains under federal investigation.
Justice Department officials said Thursday they were still determining whether Pulte’s referral had formally arrived. A person familiar with the situation said Pulte relayed the allegations verbally to senior DOJ official Ed Martin and mailed a written complaint that had not yet been received.
Swalwell dismissed the allegations as baseless and politically motivated.
“It’s all nonsense,” he said on CNN’s Laura Coates Live Thursday night. “It’s not going to shake me. The other individuals — Schiff, James, Cook and myself — we’re not going to hide under the bed, we’re not going to be silent or go away. We’re going to hold a lawless president accountable.”
Pulte was seen at the White House on Thursday evening, though administration officials did not say whether the visit was related to the latest referral.
Swalwell said the move was unsurprising given his long record of publicly confronting Trump.
“As the most vocal critic of Donald Trump over the last decade and as the only person who still has a surviving lawsuit against him, the only thing I am surprised about is that it took him this long to come after me,” he said in a statement.
Swalwell was one of the House impeachment managers during Trump’s second impeachment trial and remains entangled in ongoing litigation against the former president. In 2021, he sued Trump and several allies, arguing that Trump’s speech at the White House Ellipse before the Jan. 6 attack encouraged violent actions by his supporters. The case is still active in federal court.
The California Democrat said he will continue pursuing the lawsuit and will not be intimidated by the latest allegations.
“Of course, I will not end my lawsuit against him,” Swalwell said. “And I will not stop speaking out against the president and speaking up for Californians.”
As of Thursday night, the Justice Department had not indicated whether it would open an inquiry into Pulte’s latest claims, leaving the status of the referral unclear.
