Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac’s NY Offices To Shutter In Response To AG James’ ‘Corrupt’ Practices
Fox News Digital reported Thursday that the New York branches of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be closing for good, a decision tied to what officials described as Attorney General Letitia James’ “corrupt and dangerous business practices.”
“We are shutting down the two New York offices for Fannie and Freddie as a result of Letitia James’ corrupt and dangerous business practices in the state,” a source close to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which supervises the mortgage giants, told Fox News Digital.
The same official clarified that the closures won’t mean an end to business with New Yorkers. “We’ll still employ New York residents, and we’ll still continue to do mortgage loans in New York, of course,” the source said. “But we are going to eliminate our physical presence. And to the extent that we have leases, we are going to be subleasing those.”
The FHFA is an independent federal body tasked with oversight of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank System.
James has long been at odds with President Donald Trump, famously campaigning in 2018 on a pledge to pursue him if elected attorney general. After her win, she declared she would expose the “con man,” and her office went on to file nearly 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration. Following his second election victory in 2024, she vowed to continue battling him in court “to defend the rights of New Yorkers and the rule of law.”
The decision to pull Fannie and Freddie out of New York follows news that the Department of Justice launched an investigation into James’ mortgage dealings in May. The probe began after FHFA chief Bill Pulte issued a criminal referral a month earlier, alleging James had falsified documents to secure better lending terms.
Central to the federal inquiry is a property James bought in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2023. According to Pulte’s referral, she claimed on mortgage documents and a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac form that it would be her primary residence.
As an elected statewide official in New York, however, James is legally obligated to live in the state.
The referral also pointed to earlier irregularities, including a Brooklyn home she purchased in 2001. City records list the building as a five-unit property, while her mortgage applications classified it as four units, which may have impacted loan arrangements.
James has rejected the accusations. Her office told the New York Times in April that another loan application tied to the Virginia property stated she would not live there full-time, and that her mortgage terms did not require the house to serve as her main residence.
Her attorney, Abbe Lowell, addressed the Justice Department directly in April. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, he dismissed the referral as “three pages of stale, threadbare allegations with no reason to proceed other than they are ‘based on media reports’ and are the next salvo in President Trump’s revenge tour against Attorney General James.”
{Matzav.com}