The ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee is launching a probe into recent mortgage fraud referrals made by Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), accusing the housing official of “brazen abuse” of the agency’s authority and resources to “target people on President Trump’s political enemies list for investigation and vilification.”

A letter sent to Pulte on Monday by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., alleges the FHFA head used agency resources to “conduct deep-sea fishing expeditions of Americans’ personal financial information, apparently with help from Peter Thiel’s data company, Palantir, to deliver artificial intelligence-aided opposition research reports on officials who have held President Trump accountable or potentially stand in the way of his complete takeover of the independent Federal Reserve Board.”

The FHFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Raskin’s letter singles out criminal referrals made by Pulte to the Department of Justice for alleged mortgage fraud by Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats. It questions why a similar DOJ referral was not made for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who is alleged to have claimed three separate homes as a primary residence.

The letter also mentions the criminal referral of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, whom Pulte alleges committed mortgage fraud by claiming two homes as her primary residence to potentially obtain more favorable mortgage rates. President Donald Trump used Pulte’s Aug. 15 referral letter as grounds to fire Cook 10 days later. She subsequently sued to keep her position on the Fed’s board, and the matter is currently working its way through U.S. District Court.

Cook’s attorneys called the president’s basis for firing her “concocted” in a court filing, claiming Trump’s pretext for attempting to oust her from the central bank’s board hinged on his desire for lower interest rates. Justice Department lawyers representing Trump shot back, claiming the “President’s judgment about what constitutes ‘cause’ is not subject to judicial second-guessing.”

It is unclear what role, if any, Palantir may have played in obtaining or parsing data used in the criminal referrals made by Pulte. The company did not immediately reply to Scotsman Guide’s request for comment.

In May, mortgage liquidity giant Fannie Mae — which is overseen by the FHFA through a conservatorship arrangement — announced it was partnering with Palantir on an AI-driven tech platform designed to automate mortgage fraud detection. At a media event announcing the launch, Pulte — who also serves as chairman of Fannie Mae’s board — cited occupancy fraud as a type of activity the software is designed to detect.

In a phone interview with CNBC on Aug. 20, Pulte said the FHFA received a tip that led to the agency probe of Cook, though he declined to elaborate on where the tip came from. He also pushed back on the suggestion that the criminal referrals of Cook and other public figures were politically motivated.

“We will look at any allegation of mortgage fraud, and we do not care whether you’re a Republican [or] a Democrat. We do not care whether you’re wealthy, we don’t care whether you’re a prosecutor, we don’t care whether you’re a Fed governor,” Pulte said.

Raskin’s letter calls Pulte’s refusal to say whether the Cook tip came from within the Trump administration or from an outside source “troubling.” The congressman also questioned why the DOJ referral came from Pulte personally instead of the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General.

“Although standard procedure for a FHFA fraud referral is for FHFA’s Inspector General to transmit these sensitive allegations confidentially to DOJ, you not only made these referrals to DOJ personally, but aggressively publicized them,” the letter states.

Citing the House Judiciary Committee’s “broad jurisdiction over law enforcement and criminal referrals to the DOJ,” the letter gave Pulte until Sept. 22 to provide various requested records, including “all communications between you, or any employee of the FHFA and any White House staff since January 20, 2025, relating to any investigation or review of any public official or investigation or review into mortgage or occupancy fraud.”