Rep. Eric Swalwell alleges in new lawsuit that Bill Pulte abused database access to gin up mortgage fraud claims [View all]
Source: CNN Politics
Updated Nov 25, 2025, 1:26 PM ET
PUBLISHED Nov 25, 2025, 1:08 PM ET
Rep. Eric Swalwell on Tuesday filed a civil lawsuit against Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, alleging violations of the Privacy Act and First Amendment over Pulte’s criminal referral of him to the Justice Department for alleged mortgage fraud violations.
In the suit, filed in federal court in Washington, DC, the California Democrat and outspoken critic of President Donald Trump alleged that Pulte abused his position as federal housing chief “by scouring databases at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac” for private mortgage records of prominent Democrats, including Swalwell. Pulte’s actions represented “a gross abuse of power that violated the law,” Swalwell alleged, by targeting him for prosecution “based solely on his protected political speech and views.”
Swalwell alleged that the referral violated the Privacy Act because the law “explicitly forbids federal agencies from disclosing—or even transmitting to other agencies—sensitive information about any individual for any purpose not explicitly authorized by law.” He asked the court to direct Pulte to withdraw the criminal referral he submitted to DOJ and for damages over alleged violations of the Privacy Act.
“Defendants’ use and disclosure of Representative Swalwell’s mortgage documents flouted those basic prohibitions,” the lawsuit said. CNN has reached out to Pulte for comment on the lawsuit.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/25/politics/eric-swalwell-bill-pulte-lawsuit
Link to SUIT (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26301293-swalwell-lawsuit/
Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26301293/swalwell-lawsuit.pdf
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