The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal has called on President Trump to fire Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
In an editorial titled “Lawfare for Dummies, Monetary Edition,” the Journal identified Pulte as the mastermind behind the scheme to have the Department of Justice launch a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
“Our sources say Bill Pulte of the Federal Housing Finance Agency wrote a report that made its way to Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for Washington, DC,” the editorial stated. “Ms. Pirro’s office sent the subpoena, though Attorney General Pam Bondi no doubt signed off. Presumably the gambit is to catch Mr. Powell for lying to Congress regarding the office renovations or scrounge for details in search of some other so far undetected offense.”
The Journal described Pulte as “an especially eager toady, having led the campaign to unseat Fed Governor Lisa Cook on unproven allegations of mortgage fraud, in hopes of stacking the board with more accommodating members.” The editorial also warned the effort to bring an indictment against Powell would backfire on the administration.
“Mr. Trump needs to call time on this self-defeating scheme, with a message to Ms. Bondi to halt the legal harassment. Firing Mr. Pulte before he can cause any more embarrassment would also help,” the editorial concluded.
Ducking Blame
Pulte, who has advocated for Powell’s removal since joining the administration, claimed he was not involved in the effort to indict Powell. However, Pulte has a documented history of not telling the truth to the public. Last summer, Pulte falsely claimed Powell was considering resignation from his position and falsely insisted the Fed hired an outside crisis communications agency. He also promised to hold a press event to unveil evidence proving his allegations of mortgage fraud against Cook but canceled the event at the last minute and never publicly revealed his supposed evidence.
Separately, Pirro tried to spin the story to insist Powell made up the threat of an indictment.
“The United States Attorney’s Office contacted the Federal Reserve on multiple occasions to discuss cost overruns and the chairman’s congressional testimony, but were ignored, necessitating the use of legal process—which is not a threat,” Pirro said in a X post. “The word ‘indictment’ has come out of Mr. Powell’s mouth, no one else’s. None of this would have happened if they had just responded to our outreach. This office makes decisions based on the merits, nothing more and nothing less. We agree with the chairman of the Federal Reserve that no one is above the law, and that is why we expect his full cooperation.”
Global Response
The fallout over the Trump administration’s threat of indictments against Powell became an international story as the central banks of some of the world’s leading economies joined together to condemn the administration’s actions.
A statement published under the letterhead of the European Central Bank (ECB) declared, “We stand in full solidarity with the Federal Reserve Systems and its Chair Jerome H. Powell. The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve. It is therefore critical to preserve that independence, with full respect for the rule of law and democratic accountability.”
The statement added, “Chair Powell has served with integrity, judgement and an unwavering commitment to the public interest. To us, he is a respected colleague who is held in the highest regard by all who have worked with him.”
Joining the ECB in its support of Powell were the governors of the central banks of the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, South Korea, and Brazil. Two executives from the Bank for International Settlements also joined the defense of Powell.
While it has nothing to do with the Fed, did the WSJ also speak about Pulte’s releasing of private information on many Democrats and his contributions to the efforts to get rid of Comey and James? This corrupt cabinet and administration must all be brought before the courts for their crimes and grift in plain sight before it’s too late. Oh, maybe it is, considering ultimately these would get to the Supreme Court, I mean Trump’s Toady justices.
Maybe so, but “Trumps Justices” are there because the Democrats under Harry Reed, ended the filibusterer for the supreme court – – – foolishly thinking they would win and do the same to the other side.
The best efforts by Pulte/Trump should be to encourage the FED to buy more FNMA/Freddie Mac bonds at lower premiums to equal those of US Treasury Bonds…its a farce to believe there is a difference, so quit making homeowners and apartment complex owners pay for this extra interest rate premium. It would be a bipartisan win, and make homeownership and apartment rents lower.
He’s not the only one that needs to go.
Bill Pulte is an embarrassment to the Real Estate industry. He should just resign to avoid future embarrassment to our industry and himself. Maybe the position could be filled by someone who can actually do some good for the real estate.
Nothing like this happened in former administrations. Disgusting!
Well, Jerome Powell is holding interest rates at 20 year highs for no reason except to hurt the economy…he’s a deep state plant who is probably as guilty as anyone in Washington of fraud and corruption. I mean, just try to defend the $3 billion building. You can’t. The government has become so corrupt that it reminds me of the King of England 250 years ago who saw the colonists as serfs from whom he could just take all the money he wanted. Also, half the Wall Street Journal is communist. Is it the editorial board? I forget.
The WSJ is owned by News Corp which also owns Fox News. Both organizations are consverative by design, pro-Trump by default, and therefore it is highly unlikely, “We The People”, that the WSJ is communist.
The ‘government’ has spent five of the last eight years under your Orange Puppet Dude…and yeah, the corruption is everywhere with him. He does, indeed, want to be a king.
Your dog-whistles about ‘deep state’ and ‘globalists’ in every comment you make are not clever enough to hide your conspiracy-rooted bigotry. Also, you aren’t even correct about real estate!
We are right around a 6% rate, depending on credit scores…that is NOT some historical high. It is, in fact, below the historical average. (Go research it, learn something today!)
The only reason they were SO low under the current Felon-in-Chief his first time around was (deep breath) because the former Cabinet weasel, Steve Mnuchin told Drumpf his poll numbers would tank if he closed the New York City airports to prevent COVID from getting into the country. Drumpf couldn’t have that, because his poll numbers were so very dear to Dear Leader. So the airports stayed open, NYC became the ground zero for the spread of the pandemic in this country, and the entire world’s economy followed ours in falling off a cliff that only rational humans four years later (to be clear, not Biden, but his handlers) could try to stabilize. The Fed HAD to rock-bottom the rates to stimulate the cratered economy. A 3% rate is actually a HORRIBLE sign for your economy.
ALL of this is easily researched (not by you, you refuse to learn) by anyone with interwebs access. If not high school economics classes taken in the (deep sigh) 1980s.
Lastly, The Wall Street Journal is less communist than you are (and I doubt you actually even know the true definition OF ‘communism’). R. Murdoch and his fascist son run the thing. Take your propaganda elsewhere, little sheep. Stop insulting the adults at the table.
There is definitely an establishment in this country. Present in both parties until The Trumpster arrived. Both Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson had the same problems with monied interests. They looked out for themselves.
We The People comments are right wing nut job comments.
Pulte is an arrogant, multi=billionaire heir who obviously has nothing better to do then assault people with lies, possible gotcha moments and think he can ferment trouble. Problem is it won’t work. And Pirro is another incompetent, sloppy piece of work, who will also fail in much of what she does to uphold the law in DC. So much for an administration trying to look at “fraud, waste & abuse” when they are major perpetrators.
And we have three more years of this?
Considering Trump’s ability to find the most inept and usually corrupt and avaricious boot lickers he can one cannot help but know that Pulte should go.
Pulte is an insider scuzzbag that embarrasses himself and everybody around him. Bad enough builders are included in the ‘real estate industry’…let alone a dude that clearly just bought his way into the current regime to lick some boots and kiss some ‘stained’ tail.