President Donald Trump engaged in a mortgage arrangement that closely resembles loans he has called potentially criminal “mortgage fraud” in accusations leveled at several of his targets, according to a ProPublica report.
In late 1993 and early 1994, Trump claimed in mortgages that two properties he owned in Florida were each his primary residence, despite living in New York at the time, according to the report from the investigative journalism nonprofit. It cited contemporaneous news accounts and an interview with Trump’s longtime real estate agent.
In a statement to USA TODAY, a White House official said the two mortgages are from the same lender and it is “illogical to believe that the same lender would agree to defraud itself.”
“This is yet another desperate attempt by the Left wing media to disparage President Trump with false allegations and to distract the public from his historic first year in office,” the official said. “President Trump has never, or will ever, break the law.”
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In this file photo, Trump during a round of golf at his Turnberry course on May 2, 2023 in Turnberry, Scotland.
In recent months, members of the Trump administration have leveled mortgage-fraud accusations at several critics or targets of the president.
Trump himself sent a letter to Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, alleging she signed documents within weeks of each other stating that properties in Michigan and Georgia would each be her primary residence the next year. He said it was “inconceivable” that she wasn’t aware of the first commitment when she made the second, and “impossible” that she planned to honor both.
However, according to the ProPublica report, Trump pledged that the second property in Florida would be his primary residence just seven weeks after pledging the first would be. Even supposing the pledges in the 1990s documents amounted to a crime, the legal deadline for bringing mortgage fraud charges has expired.
Trump paid off the mortgage of a property he owned at 124 Woodbridge Road, Palm Beach, FL, depicted Nov. 9, 2017. The home is just north of his Mar-a-Lago club.
In Trump’s letter, he called Cook’s alleged conduct “deceitful and potentially criminal,” and said he was removing her from office. That step triggered a legal battle with Cook that is still unfolding. The Supreme Court determined in October that Cook may remain in her position for now, and it will hear oral arguments on the issue in January.
In a previous statement to USA TODAY following reports that the Justice Department launched a probe into the mortgage fraud allegations against Cook, Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Cook, said his client didn’t commit fraud in how she described her properties, “but it takes nothing for this DOJ to undertake a new politicized investigation, and they appear to have just done it again.”
Cook isn’t the only target of Trump administration officials when it comes to alleged crimes involving mortgages.
The Justice Department under Trump has repeatedly pursued an indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil lawsuit against Trump in 2022. The department has accused her of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution by allegedly telling her lender that a house she bought in Virginia would be her second home, and then renting it out.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is pictured speaking to reporters outside the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk, Virginia, on Oct. 24, 2025. James pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding her mortgage lender.
Trump, according to the ProPublica report, rented out both Florida properties that he said would be his primary residence.
An initial federal grand jury indictment against James was thrown out in November after a judge determined Attorney General Pam Bondi unlawfully appointed the prosecutor who secured the indictment, former Trump personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan.On Dec. 4, a federal grand jury declined to reindict James, according to multiple media reports. James said the charges against her were “baseless” and it was “time for this unchecked weaponization of our justice system to stop.”
The Trump administration has reportedly also launched mortgaged-related probes into Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell, both California Democrats. Schiff served on the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. Swalwell was a House manager for Trump’s second impeachment trial, which also dealt with the Jan. 6 attack.
Trump himself accused Schiff of mortgage fraud on social media in July, alleging Schiff listed his Maryland home as his primary residence even though, as a congressman from California, he needed to live in California. In a September social media post, Trump said Schiff was “guilty as hell” and should be prosecuted.
Both Schiff and Swalwell have denied wrongdoing and labeled the probes political.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Did Trump commit same ‘mortgage fraud’ he has accused his targets of?
