In August 2025, the Trump administration escalated its pursuit of Democratic Senator Adam Schiff -- Trump's most prominent congressional nemesis and the lead impeachment manager during Trump's first impeachment trial -- through a series of investigative actions that ultimately collapsed under their own political weight.
The Referral and Investigation: The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), under Trump appointee Bill Pulte, sent a criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi in May 2025 alleging that Schiff had falsified bank documents and property records related to two properties (one in California, one in Maryland) to obtain favorable mortgage terms by misrepresenting which was his primary residence between 2003 and 2019. On August 5, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland opened a formal criminal investigation.
The Special Attorney: Bondi appointed Ed Martin -- a conservative activist, former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, and briefly the interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. -- as "special attorney" to investigate both Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Martin had no significant prosecutorial background; his appointment paralleled the Halligan appointment at EDVA in its use of political loyalists rather than career prosecutors to pursue the president's political enemies.
The Escalation: By mid-August 2025, CNN reported that Trump was using "FBI and Justice Department to escalate his long-standing feud with Adam Schiff," with the investigation expanding beyond the mortgage allegations.
The Stall: By October 2025, federal prosecutors in Maryland reported to DOJ leadership that they had not produced enough evidence to bring charges. Multiple law enforcement sources told NBC News the investigation "came to a standstill." Career prosecutors were reportedly reluctant to pursue charges they viewed as politically motivated and legally insufficient.
The Investigation of the Investigators: In a remarkable turn, by November 2025 a federal grand jury in Maryland had been assembled to investigate the handling of the Schiff probe itself -- examining whether Ed Martin and Bill Pulte had improperly directed the investigation for political purposes. The grand jury's focus on political involvement in the probe raised questions about whether the referral from Pulte's FHFA was itself an abuse of governmental authority.
Schiff has not been charged with any crime. The episode illustrated a pattern repeated across the Halligan, Comey, James, and Schiff cases: the administration used DOJ to launch investigations of political opponents based on referrals from political appointees, assigned politically loyal prosecutors rather than career staff, and then watched the cases collapse when career prosecutors determined the evidence was insufficient or the prosecution was legally unjustifiable. The political damage -- headlines, legal costs, chilling effects on opposition -- was inflicted regardless of whether charges were ever filed.