The Department of Justice has begun a criminal investigation into California Senator Adam Schiff for alleged mortgage fraud arising from claims he made relating to homes in Maryland and California.
The investigation, first reported by Fox News, is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland. According to federal investigators, Schiff engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” in order to obtain favorable loan terms for both residences in California and Maryland.
Last October, the Government Accountability Institute reported that in the two decades before being elected to the Senate, Schiff, former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, repeatedly declared in mortgage and election filings that both his California and Maryland homes were his “primary residence.”
That GAI study concluded that Schiff’s housing declarations “won him financial and political benefits.”
In May, Federal Housing Finance Agency director William Pulte sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi saying that “Mr. Schiff appears to have falsified records in order to receive favorable loan terms, and also appears to have been aware of the financial benefits of a primary residence mortgage when compared to a secondary residence mortgage.”
According to Freddie Mac, a federally backed lender, Americans can only claim one home as their primary residence, and it must be the house they live in for the majority of the year.
“I’ve been through dozens and dozens of pages on these mortgage applications, and he signs his name on every single page,” said Seamus Bruner, Director of Research at the Government Accountability Institute. “Those look to be misrepresentations, at least on one of the homes, and so each one of those are potential fraud and perjury charges.”
In 2009, 2011, and 2013, Schiff refinanced and declared his Maryland home his “principal residence,” while still maintaining his California home as his primary home in 2009 and 2011. Then, in 2020, Schiff altered the notation on his Maryland home to be his secondary residence – a move that investigators may interpret as an admission of prior mortgage fraud.
Since Schiff did not list his Maryland home as a secondary residence until 2020, it is possible that prosecutors might be able to pursue charges on what was an ongoing conspiracy. The federal statute of limitation for mortgage fraud lasts for 10 years, but a judge may allow for an extension if he determines that the fraud was concealed, meaning that Schiff may still be eligible for charges despite some of the declarations being more than 10 years old.
“Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff is in BIG TROUBLE!” wrote President Trump on July 20, 2025, on Truth Social, after the federal housing agency made the criminal referral. He went on to accuse Schiff of having “falsified loan documents” and say that he should “pay the price of prison.”
In July, Schiff slammed the investigation, which he believes has been drummed up by President Trump, as a ploy to distract from the drama around the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files. However, Schiff’s press secretary had previously said that Schiff claimed both homes as his primary residence for mortgage purposes since they were occupied throughout the year, and he wanted to distinguish them from vacation properties.
GAI reached out to the Maryland Attorney General’s Office and Sen. Schiff for a comment on the federal investigation, but neither responded.
Just last year, Marilyn Mosby, a state attorney in Baltimore, pled guilty to mortgage fraud and was put on probation. There are other examples of government officials being convicted of similar white-collar crimes. Then-Rep. George Santos was charged with fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds, and evidence used to convict Santos was found in his mortgage documents.
An Oklahoma state representative was charged with providing false information, unlawful advance voting, and voting without being qualified in 2020. His case centered on the fact that he registered to vote at an address that was not his primary residence.
GAI will be following developments in the Justice Department’s investigation into Sen. Schiff.
