The Justice Department’s deputy attorney general on Wednesday “unequivocally” denied a report from an MSNBC journalist claiming that Maryland’s top federal prosecutor had informed department leadership that a potential case against Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) was too weak to pursue.
Schiff is currently being investigated in Maryland over allegations of possible mortgage fraud.
Ken Dilanian, a left-wing justice and intelligence correspondent for MSNBC, tweeted on Thursday that “Kelly Hayes, the U.S. Attorney in Maryland, met in recent days with Todd Blanche, the deputy Attorney General, to update him on the Schiff case” and that “Hayes told Blanche she did not think the case against Schiff was strong.”
But Blanche pushed back hard on that claim.
“Breaking: @DilanianMSNBC reports on a recent meeting that never happened,” Blanche tweeted. “Can you ask your two ‘sources’ for more info? I’m genuinely curious. Excited to hear more about this made-up meeting! Also, unequivocally: U.S. Attorney Hayes has told me no such thing.”
Dilanian then followed up his Thursday tweet with a statement from Schiff lawyer and former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara, who claimed that “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.”
Hayes, a veteran Department of Justice prosecutor, is also overseeing the case against former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton, who faces charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified information.
“She expressed to Blanche, we are told, that she does not believe that this is a strong case, that she does not believe that this is a case that can be won, and not a case that the Justice Department should move forward with,” Dilanian claimed on MSNBC Thursday, just a while before Blanche refuted his story.
Conservative Brief reported that in 2024 Schiff (D-CA) listed both his California and Maryland homes as his “principal residence” in mortgage and election filings, prompting an ethics complaint and raising potential fraud concerns, according to legal experts.
In May, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte reportedly sent a letter to officials Todd Blanche and Pam Bondi outlining Schiff’s alleged misconduct.
“Based on media reports, Mr. Adam B. Schiff has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property,” Pulte wrote in the letter, according to Fox News.
“As regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, we take very seriously allegations of mortgage fraud or other criminal activity. Such misconduct jeopardizes the safety and soundness of FHFA’s regulated entities and the security and stability of the U.S. mortgage market,” the letter continued.
According to reports, Pulte received a memo in July from Fannie Mae financial crimes investigators concluding that Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) allegedly engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” involving five Fannie Mae loans.
Schiff, who formerly served as both ranking member and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) before his election to the Senate, was a leading proponent of the Trump-Russia collusion allegations and frequently cited former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier. In March 2017, he read several of its unverified claims into the congressional record.
Outlets also reported earlier this year that a longtime intelligence staffer who worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee repeatedly warned the FBI beginning in 2017 that Schiff had authorized the leaking of classified information to damage President Trump in connection with the now-debunked Russia investigation. The FBI memos documenting those warnings were turned over to Congress by Director Kash Patel.
Schiff has denied any wrongdoing.