President Trump’s Lawfare Against Senator Schiff

I’ve been looking into the criminal referral of Senator Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to the Justice Department, on which our James Lynch reported Tuesday. It looks like Schiff, as Washington pols are wont to do, probably played fast and loose with residency reporting rules, which likely resulted in favorable mortgage rates in connection with homes that, to perform his job, he had to maintain in his home state of Californian and the D.C. metro area.

That said, most of this is ancient history: The federal statute of limitations on any mortgage fraud allegations has lapsed. Moreover, leaving aside that President Trump shouldn’t be speaking publicly about potential investigations at all, his claim that Schiff was required to “LIVE in California because he was a Congressman from California,” and that he therefore defrauded the voters by listing the Maryland home as his “primary residence,” is constitutionally infirm.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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I’ve been looking into the criminal referral of Senator Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to the Justice Department, on which our James Lynch reported Tuesday. It looks like Schiff, as Washington pols are wont to do, probably played fast and loose with residency reporting rules, which likely resulted in favorable mortgage rates in connection with homes that, to perform his job, he had to maintain in his home state of Californian and the D.C. metro area.

That said, most of this is ancient history: The federal statute of limitations on any mortgage fraud allegations has lapsed. Moreover, leaving aside that President Trump shouldn’t be speaking publicly about potential investigations at all, his claim that Schiff was required to “LIVE in California because he was a Congressman from California,” and that he therefore defrauded the voters by listing the Maryland home as his “primary residence,” is constitutionally infirm.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.