1
- 5 weeks ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Let's go out front.
00:03And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett.
00:05Out front tonight, we begin with that breaking news,
00:08Trump's mortgage fraud hypocrisy.
00:10As the president is going after a Biden-appointed Fed official,
00:14a top Democratic senator in New York,
00:16and the New York attorney general for what he calls mortgage fraud, right?
00:19It's been the main thing they've been going after with.
00:22And a new report tonight is turning the tables.
00:25On the same day that the Justice Department
00:27is opening a criminal investigation into that Fed official, Lisa Cook.
00:31She's the one Trump's trying to fire for mortgage fraud.
00:35ProPublica is reporting that at least three Trump cabinet officials
00:39have also claimed multiple primary residences on their mortgage applications.
00:45Here they are, Labor Secretary.
00:47Well, you heard it there from him.
00:48Two primary residences is criminal referral.
00:52Well, that's what's the case in these situations.
00:56And Trump has done this, right, in the case of Lisa Cook.
00:59Also in the cases of Senator Adam Schiff
01:01and the New York attorney general, Letitia James, right?
01:03That's been the standard.
01:04Two primary residences claimed investigation.
01:07The thing is, those three individuals that I just mentioned
01:10all happen to be people that Trump is politically at odds with.
01:15Trump says that what Cook did was fraud and should be investigated
01:18because she's accused of signing two mortgage documents two weeks apart,
01:22promising that each of those residences would be her primary residence
01:25for at least one year.
01:26That doesn't seem to add up at all.
01:28Now, according to ProPublica, Chavez de Reamer did something very similar,
01:32claiming a home in Arizona was a primary residence
01:36and signing both her mortgage documents in the same year, back in 2021.
01:41So two primaries within one year.
01:43And today, Bill Pulte, Trump's housing finance chief,
01:47the man that you just heard earlier there,
01:49who very simply defined what this administration calls mortgage fraud,
01:52what they say should be investigated and prosecuted, right?
01:55If you've got two primary residences claimed, that hits the bar.
01:58So today he was asked,
02:00what about other Republicans who might fit that very same standard?
02:03Here's how he responded.
02:05It's a question of how they know that in those cases,
02:07but not in any of the ones against their political opponents.
02:10Out front now, Justin Elliott of ProPublica, who broke this story,
02:14did all of the hard reporting, along with Mimi Rocha,
02:17the former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York,
02:19and Brian Barrett, the executive editor of Wired.
02:23All right, Justin, you've done all of this work.
02:25And over the recent days, everyone said,
02:27OK, they're pointing the finger at Cook and Letitia James, Adam Schiff.
02:31So what about in your own house?
02:33So you went and looked in their house, in his cabinet.
02:35Three cases within the Trump administration that certainly seem to meet Bill Pulte's definition
02:41of what should be investigated.
02:43Two primary residences at the same time.
02:45He says that should get a criminal referral.
02:47What did you find?
02:48Yeah, I mean, so a couple of things.
02:49First of all, I did these cases and we just did not get any comment.
02:54No answer.
02:54No.
02:54Oh, gosh, if that's the case, we're going to be hot and hot on it, right?
02:57No.
02:58They didn't respond.
02:59They didn't respond.
02:59OK, so what are the similarities between Trump administration officials and Trump's,
03:04you know, I guess there's no other way to describe Cook and Letitia James, Adam Schiff,
03:09other than his enemies, his rivals, in terms of the mortgages?
03:13So each of these cases has Fox News had a segment a couple of months ago featuring them
03:18cooking breakfast at home together.
03:20My wrongdoing, but I mean, Mimi, I guess I'm just looking back to the original comment made
03:24by the person who is supposedly in charge of looking into this, Bill Pulte.
03:27If somebody is claiming two primary residences, that is not appropriate and we will refer
03:32it for criminal investigation.
03:33So putting aside the legal standard, right, of every case is its own unique fingerprint,
03:38right?
03:39By their own standard, every single one of these things that you have just uncovered,
03:44Mimi, right, would be criminal investigation, right?
03:47By the standard that Pulte said, yes, that he's not usually a standalone crime.
03:52It's usually part, I mean, in the federal prosecutor toolbox, like they have bigger other
03:58things to do.
03:59But intent crimes, I don't know the answer to that sitting here.
04:03What I do know is it is very obvious the people who they have singled out for this very
04:08specific type of attorney general's house doing some kind of inspection.
04:12Like, this is an unheard of level of...
04:17There's not even an effort tonight to say, oh, OK, we're going to look into the ProPublica
04:21stuff.
04:21And if that's the case, it's not OK.
04:23There's not even an effort for that.
04:24They're not pretending to give equal treatment.
04:25That's what I think is almost, it's not even, there isn't even a fig leaf being put up here.
04:29Correct.
04:30I mean, Brian, the Trump official who referred, you know, Trump's, you know, Schiff and Letitia
04:35James and Cook for prosecution, Bill Pulte, was asked today, why?
04:40Like, why did you look into Lisa Cook at the Fed, her mortgages specifically, right?
04:44What would target this, right?
04:45She's a Biden appointee, she's in a 14-year term, she's voted against him on interest rates.
04:49Why her and not someone else?
04:51And his answer was, he gets tips.
04:53He gets tips.
04:54And I just want to play what he said.
04:57I mean, Justin, just to be clear here, you don't need a tip.
05:01I mean, you actually just went and got the documents, right?
05:04If you wanted to look, you could look.
05:05Right.
05:06I mean, I don't want to put my colleagues and myself down.
05:10But this was a, I mean, this was about a week of work going to the counties where we thought.
05:17To get secret tips.
05:18No, these are fully public documents at the county level.
05:22Oh, Bill, Trump was asked about this last week, Brian.
05:25I want to just play the exchange when he was asked about it.
05:28Yeah, I mean, Mimi, and also, if they're going to do criminal referrals, I mean, what is,
05:32what sort of check and balance?
05:34And I don't say this, you know, sarcastically, but what even exists in the system to say,
05:39well, I'm only going after him and not after you?
05:42Is there anything to stop that other than people like us sitting here and saying this is blatant hypocrisy?
05:47That is, but it is part of a broader pattern.
05:50We use the word weaponization.
05:52It's an abuse of power because power of bigger scheme of things.
05:56Mimi, Brian, Justin, thank you so very much.
05:58And Justin, really, such crucial reporting.
06:00Thanks so much.
06:01All right, thank you all.
06:03And next, more breaking news.
06:05Republicans, now more of them breaking with President Trump, taking on his top health official.
06:10But does this actually put RFK Jr.'s future in doubt?
06:14And a Republican congressman upping the ante now threatening to read a list of Epstein's clients publicly on the House
06:22floor if the Trump administration will not release the Epstein files.
06:28Epstein's ex-girlfriend, who alleges Trump groped her in front of Epstein, speaks out.
06:33And Trump's son cashing in now big time.
06:36Eric Trump's wealth is soaring half a billion dollars richer now.
06:41So what's fueling it?
06:46Tonight, banning immigrants from India to the U.S.?
06:50MAGA on a tear after Indian Prime Minister Modi held hands with Putin earlier this week
06:56and then spent two hours with him alone in a limo.
06:59Modi's signaling that he's choosing Putin over Trump.
07:02And that was the signal, for sure.
07:04Trump's been threatening sanctions on India for buying Russian oil and all that's been going down.
07:08And then Modi goes and spends two hours in a limo with Putin.
07:11You get the message.
07:13Well, MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk posted...
07:14If MAGA voices are outraged by Modi's embrace of Putin,
07:19well, then they should be equally outraged by Trump's embrace of Putin.
07:23Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for Putin just weeks ago in Alaska, right?
07:28On that summit, Trump invited Putin to join him in his limo for their own private ride together before the
07:34meeting.
07:34And after standing side-by-side with Putin after the summit,
07:38Putin gushed...
07:39Trump gushed about Putin.
07:41Watch this.
07:43But now MAGA's going after India.
07:46OK.
07:46The question is, though, is there a price to pay for this?
07:49Or is this just, you know, a small skirmish going on on the side?
07:52Harry Enten out front to tell us something we don't know.
07:54Harry, this may be no small skirmish.
07:57How many Indian Americans, right, as a powerful group, voted for Trump in the last election?
08:05Yeah, this is horrible.
08:06And the garbage that you're hearing right now from...
08:08India is the most populous country in the world.
08:10That did not used to be true 10 or 15 years ago, right?
08:13Swapped with China.
08:13Now they're number one.
08:15Also, though, one of the fastest-growing populations in the United States, right,
08:19when we're talking about Indian Americans.
08:20Absolutely true.
08:21You know, I looked at a little less than 3 million back in 2010,
08:24and now they're more than 4 million.
08:25Well, you have already told me several things I don't know.
08:28But now I say, tell me something else I don't know.
08:30I'll tell you something else that you don't...
08:32with this type of talk, because the bottom line is Indian Americans and residents of India
08:36really are more going towards the Republican direction.
08:39And now stuff like this, we'll just have to wait and see.
08:41Right.
08:42Let's see if it...
08:42What happens with it.
08:43All right, Harry, thank you so much, as always.
08:46And thanks so much to all of you.
08:47It's time for Anderson.