Exclusive-Trump official bypassed ethics rules in criminal referrals of Fed governor and other foes, sources say

By Marisa Taylor and Chris Pentice

Washington (Reuters) -Muble -appointed person, according to the seven people who accused the political enemies of the mortgage fraud of the mortgage fraud, jumped the rules of the agency to enable federal authorities not to abuse their forces for partisan purposes.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte made criminal guidance against targets, including the Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, who President Donald Trump tried to dismiss the mortgages of President Donald Trump earlier this year. Pulte, who dealt with standard procedures, survived the agency’s internal keeper, usually the office of the Ministry of Justice, Cook from the Ministry of Justice and two other well -known officials.

“The advice did not come from OIG,” one of these people said, using stenography for the general inspector office. “He surprised people.”

Cook rejected Pulte’s charges.

Pulte did not respond to the requests for comments for this story.

The spokesman of the Ministry of Justice and the FHFA Inspectorate General Office refrained from commenting. The White House Press Office did not respond to comments.

Pulte’s accusations are at the center of the efforts of the Trump administration to demand criminal charges against the perceived enemies of the President’s politics and policies. Last month, the campaign led to a guilty indictment against a former director of the Federal Investigation Office. In the case of Cook, the Trump-Pulte effort was criticized by law experts as a movement to overthrow a senior policy maker from the Federal Reserve, an independent institution, an independent institution that is critical for the US economy.

Trump argued that investigations focused on “justice ,, not political goals. “This is really about justice,” he said, after the former FBI director’s indictment. “Not revenge.”

People who are familiar with the issue were separated directly to the Ministry of Justice and to the public accusations that were not fully investigated, with decades of peer and ethical arrangements for decades. Five of these people and independent law experts consulted by Reuters, Pulte’s movements to prevent political witch hunts, as well as other rules, as well as the so -called “impartiality” regulations, he said.

“You can’t choose people because of political reasons, Ric said President George W. Bush’s former assistant lawyer Richard Painter. “A clear violation of the federal law.”

Pulte’s actions, Legal experts told Reuters, violating various ethical norms and regulations, he said. Experts, in addition to the rules of “impartiality” designed to ensure that government officials remain impartial in making decisions, the agency’s own procedures, bodyguards within the scope of confidentiality law and the constitutional process within the scope of the fifth amendment can change the constitutional right, he said.

Since it may be subject to interpreting ethical rules and the desire of an administration to implement them, it is unclear whether Pulte’s actions will undermine the accusations of mortgage fraud or not to affect the authority as an agency director. Trump praised Pulte, praised a social media post, wrote: “Don’t let the radical left weak stop you!”

The president’s criminal prosecution intensified political opponents to target. In late September, a large jury, former FBI director and Trump criticism for a long time, accused James Comey in a alleged case. Shortly after Trump, the indictment came in a social media mission that called for the Chief Public Prosecutor to prosecute.

Comey rejected any injustice.

Cook’s investigation is coming because Trump is looking for a more flexible federal reserve, the US Federal Bank. Although the FED has long been free of political turmoil, Pulte Trump and other administrative officials criticized their governors and asked them to reduce their interest rates more aggressively. Last week, the Supreme Court refused to allow Trump to be dismissed Cook and suspended the issue until the White House offered to remove it.

Immediately after the March approval in FHFA, Pulte became an open oral voice of the administration. After the 2008 financial crisis, FHFA is a low -profile agency created to control the elements of the mortgage lending sector.

During his arrival, his new chef was attacking Cook in an aggressive way. In August, Pulte, who alleged irregularities in the mortgage documents, issued a request for the Ministry of Justice’s investigation of the FED governor of the FED, targeting him on social media and accusing him with “open mortgage fraud”.

Legal experts, in order to ensure the independence of the probes such as Pulte, a federal agency’s politically appointed president, typically a inspector will generally want to investigate the claim of injustice, he said. In many federal agencies, inspector General Office is available to investigate fraud, waste and abuse independently.

Any evidence obtained during an investigation will then be referred to the penal researchers by the General Inspector, not the head of the agency. Under no circumstances, these experts are expected to announce an investigation by ignoring any assumption of innocence and staining the possibility of a potentially fair trial.

“A former Federal Prosecutor in Washington and West Virginia, Andrew Tessman said,” A indicator of penalty mortgage guidance is an indicator, the public disclosure of guidances to public. ” “This would never happen before.”

Shortly after receiving the FHFA rudder, Pulte built a new channel to get anonymous clues about mortgage fraud. The agency wrote on the social media site X in April. The new clue line surprised some personnel, told the six people who were familiar with the issue, because the agency had such an output that was already supervised by the Inspector General Office.

In addition to the department, Reuters could not determine whether he had established a new channel that historically investigates the allegations of mortgage fraud planned to avoid the general inspector. He said that the previous clue line was founded by the design to avoid intervening even by the agency staff, like the general inspector himself.

In addition to his campaign against Cook, Pulte made similar criminal guidances against New York Chief Public Prosecutor Letitia James and Adam Schiff, a member of the Democratic Congress. Trump called on the US Chief Public Prosecutor Pam Bondi to prosecute James, Schiff and Comey in the Social Post 20 September.

James and Schiff refused to do wrong.

None of the recommendations directed the Ministry of Justice to announce any criminal indictment. After the Federal Prosecutor said that Trump had lost his confidence, he resigned in September, controlling the James investigation.

Since Pulte has made directions according to the documents reviewed by Reuters, FHFA and other federal agencies officials have cooperated with the Ministry of Justice in the next investigations. Authorities included the FBI representatives, internal income service and the General Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Inspectors.

FBI and IRS spokesman did not respond to comments. An automatic E -mail from the HUD Inspectorate General Office said that the office was closed due to the closure of the ongoing government.

Last month, Reuters reported that the mortgage documents associated with one of Cook’s houses showed the lender to the debtor that he declared an Atlanta residence as a “holiday house .. The declaration argues that Cook has declared the primary residence of the house, claiming to secure better credit conditions against other documents specified by Pulte.

(Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch. Editing by Paulo Prada)