WASHINGTON — The federal mortgage fraud investigation against Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, one of President Donald Trump’s chief political foes, has stalled, according to four people familiar with the investigation.
After months of investigating, the federal prosecutors in Maryland leading the probe have not produced enough evidence to bring charges, these people said.
One of the sources, a federal law enforcement official, said the investigation “came to a standstill.”
Kelly Hayes, the U.S. attorney overseeing the investigation, met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche earlier this week and asked him how to proceed, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting. The decision out of that meeting was for Hayes to pursue more evidence, and the case remains ongoing, those people said.
“No final decision has been made,” one of the sources said.
The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the ongoing investigation.
The White House referred a request for comment to the Justice Department, which has not responded.
Schiff served as the lead impeachment manager in the House during Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2020. He has denied any wrongdoing in response to the Trump administration’s investigation into mortgage fraud allegations.
In a statement, Schiff’s attorney Preet Bharara said: “It seems pretty clear that a team of career prosecutors have thoroughly reviewed the politically-motivated allegations against Senator Schiff and found they are unsupported by any evidence and are baseless.”
“The transparently vindictive effort to pursue the Senator has no merit, and if there is any justice left in the Justice Department, this should be the end of the matter,” Bharara added.
The investigation has been going on since at least the summer. NBC News reported in August that Attorney General Pam Bondi tapped Ed Martin, a conservative activist and former interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., to probe the allegations against Schiff.
Martin, whom Bondi described as a “special attorney,” met with Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who sent a criminal referral for the California senator to the Justice Department in May.
Pulte had also sent a referral for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was indicted earlier this month on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution related to the purchase of a home in Norfolk, Virginia. She has denied the charges.
Last month, Trump posted a message on Truth Social imploring Bondi to take legal action against Schiff and James.
“What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia???” he wrote, referring to former FBI Director James Comey, Schiff and James.
“They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,” he said, adding: “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.”
Trump had actually intended the post to be a personal message to Bondi, an administration official later told NBC News.
If the Justice Department ultimately declines to pursue a case against Schiff, the decision would likely be met with an unfavorable reaction from Trump.
Asked Thursday about a potential grand jury focused on Schiff, Trump said he hopes one is empaneled.
“He’s a horrible human being, very dishonest person,” Trump said of Schiff, before inviting Bondi to comment.
“We’re not going to comment on any grand jury that’s open,” Bondi told reporters.
The top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik S. Siebert, resigned last month under pressure from Trump to bring the mortgage case against James.
Trump then appointed Lindsey Halligan — an insurance lawyer with zero prosecutorial experience who was previously a part of Trump’s legal team — to fill the position, and she secured indictments against both James and former FBI Director James Comey.
James and Comey have proclaimed their innocence and have described the cases against them as politically motivated.
Hayes’ office pursued what many legal experts see as the strongest of the cases brought against Trump’s political enemies: the indictment of Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, who is accused of mishandling classified information.
The investigation into Bolton predated the Trump administration, which revived it after he returned to office in January. Bolton has pleaded not guilty.
