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The detail is not small. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financing programs are designed to back loans only for properties with four or fewer units. By allegedly disguising her property’s true size, James may have gained an unfair financial advantage.
When Martin arrived on Friday, observers noticed something interesting: the brownstone featured a single doorbell at the main entrance and four more at the side entrance, labeled “1 Floor,” “2 Floor,” “3A,” and “3B.”
Tensions rose when a neighbor confronted Martin and his colleague, demanding answers about why they were there.
“Tell me why you’re here,” she insisted. “We know who lives here . . . You’re not here about the houses. You’re here because of who lives here. It’s my neighborhood. It’s my block. I have a right to know what you guys are doing.”
Martin downplayed the situation, responding, “I’m just happy to be on a block looking at houses . . . I’m just looking at houses, interesting houses. It’s an important house.”
The neighbor wasn’t buying it. “It’s not,” she fired back. “It’s just like every other tract house on this block that was built by developers.”
“They’re beautiful, beautiful neighborhood,” Martin replied before walking away.
The investigation into James’ real estate dealings traces back to April, when Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte referred the case to the DOJ. Pulte accused James of falsifying mortgage documents by claiming a Virginia property she purchased in 2023 would serve as her “principal residence” while she continued serving as New York’s top prosecutor. Meanwhile, her Brooklyn residence was allegedly listed as a second home.
The allegations don’t stop there. James and her father reportedly signed mortgage documents labeling themselves as “husband and wife” in order to meet lender requirements.
“Bill Pulte and his FHFA team got this started with his criminal referral,” Martin stated last week. “And as Tish James and Adam Schiff always say: ‘Nobody is above the law.’”
Special attorneys such as Martin hold sweeping authority, allowing them to conduct criminal investigations, present cases to grand juries, and prosecute matters in sensitive cases—even outside of the districts where the alleged crimes took place.
Grand juries in both Virginia and Maryland are now reviewing whether James and Schiff should face criminal indictments for allegedly falsifying property records to secure more favorable loan terms.
Martin has made it clear he’s taking his assignment seriously. “Attorney General Bondi and President Trump have given me a very serious mission. I am committed to going where the facts take me. For months DOJ and the FBI have been working on these two cases, it is my job to stick the landing,” Martin said.
Predictably, James and Schiff have denied any wrongdoing.
Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, representing Schiff, lashed out at the probe. “The allegations against Senator Schiff are transparently false, stale, and long debunked. Now Ed Martin, the most brazenly partisan and politically compromised person possible for the task, has been picked to investigate a political adversary. The bias here is glaring. Any supposed investigation led by him would be the very definition of weaponization of the justice process,” Bharara said.
As the evidence mounts, Americans are watching closely. If proven true, this case would expose yet another example of powerful Democrats gaming the system for personal gain while lecturing the rest of the country about “accountability.” The phrase “nobody is above the law” may finally come back to haunt them.
