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New York Times
9 minutes ago
- New York Times
A Half-Billion-Dollar Fine Against Trump Was Thrown Out
A panel of New York appeals court judges said today that the roughly $520 million penalty imposed on President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth was excessive. The court eliminated the financial penalty while preserving the judgment that the president had committed fraud. One of the judges, Peter Moulton, concluded that while Trump had done harm in inflating the value of his assets, 'it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half-billion-dollar award to the state.' The other judges agreed to toss out the fine, but they were sharply divided on how the case should proceed. Ultimately, the court decided to let the fraud judgment stand so that further challenges to the case could be heard at the state's highest court. The ruling freed Trump and his family from an enormous financial burden that once threatened to wipe out all his cash and force a fire sale of some of his most prized businesses. Since he won back the presidency, his net worth has increased by billions of dollars thanks to his cryptocurrency ventures. Trump celebrated the decision as 'a great win for America.' Letitia James, the New York attorney general who brought the case, pledged to appeal. In other Trump news: The president said that he would join a patrol tonight on the streets of D.C. After an infusion of cash from Trump's signature bill, deportations have surged. These charts show where they have happened and who they have affected. The Trump administration is preparing to lower the recruitment standards for F.B.I. agents. Soon after Tiffany Trump's engagement, deals began to flow in for her fiancé, a Times investigation found. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Los Angeles Times
11 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Supreme Court says Trump may cancel DEI-related health research grants
WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court said Thursday the Trump administration may cancel hundreds of health research grants that involve diversity, equity and inclusion or gender identity. The justices granted an emergency appeal from President Trump's lawyers and set aside a Boston's judge order that blocked the canceling of $783 million in research grants. The justices split 5-4. Chief Justice John G. Roberts joined the court's three liberals in dissent and said the district judge had not overstepped his authority. The court's conservative majority has repeatedly sided with the administration and against federal judges in disputes over spending and staffing at federal agencies. In the latest case, the majority agreed that Trump and his appointees may decide on how to spend health research funds allocated by Congress. Upon taking office in January, Trump issued an executive order 'ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.' A few weeks later, the acting director of the National Institutes of Health said the agency would no longer fund 'low-value and off-mission research programs, including but not limited to studies based on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and gender identity.' More than 1,700 grants were canceled. Trump's lawyers told the court NIH had terminated grants to study 'Buddhism and HIV stigma in Thailand'; 'intersectional, multilevel and multidimensional structural racism for English- and Spanish-speaking populations'; and 'anti-racist healing in nature to protect telomeres of transitional age BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] for health equity.' California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and his counterparts from 15 Democratic-led states had sued to halt what they called an 'unprecedented disruption to ongoing research.' They were joined by groups of researchers and public health advocates. The state attorneys said their public universities were using grant money for 'projects investigating heart disease, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, alcohol and substance abuse, mental-health issues, and countless other health conditions.' They said NIH had terminated a grant for a University of California study examining how inflammation, insulin resistance, and physical activity affect Alzheimer's disease in Black women, a group with higher rates and a more aggressive profile of the disease. Also terminated they said was a University of Hawaiʻi study that aimed to identify genetic and biological risk factors for colorectal cancer among Native Hawaiians, a population with increased incidence and mortality rates of that disease. In June, the Democratic state attorneys won a ruling from U.S. District Judge William G. Young, a Reagan appointee. He said the sudden halt to research grants violated a federal procedural law because it was 'arbitrary' and poorly explained. He said Trump had required agencies 'to focus on eradicating anything that it labels as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ('DEI'), an undefined enemy.' He said he had tried and failed to get a clear definition of DEI and what it entailed. When the 1st Circuit Court refused to lift the judge's order, Trump's Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer appealed to the Supreme Court in late July. He noted the justices in April had set aside a similar decision from a Boston-based judge who blocked the new administration's canceling of education grants. The solicitor general argued that Trump's order rescinded an executive order from President Biden in 2021 that mandated 'an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda' and instructed federal agencies to 'allocate resources to address the historic failure to invest sufficiently, justly, and equally in underserved communities.' He said the new administration decided these DEI-related grants 'do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment, and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness.'
The Hill
11 minutes ago
- The Hill
Who is Bill Pulte, the housing director going after Trump's enemies?
President Trump has been using the bully pulpit of his presidency to go after the Federal Reserve with a vengeance, and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) chief William Pulte has acted as his megaphone-in-chief throughout his pressure campaign. Pulte has lambasted Fed chair Powell in social media posts and television interviews, called for lower short-term interest rates, and exhorted Congress to probe the Fed over a cost overrun. On Wednesday, he alleged that Fed governor Lisa Cook committed mortgage fraud by designating both her Atlanta condo and her Michigan home as her primary residences. The allegation is part of a pattern. Pulte has made mortgage fraud accusations against two other top political enemies of the president, New York attorney general Letitia James and Democratic Senator Adam Schiff (Calif.). Despite the fact that Pulte's agency has nothing to do with the criminal prosecution system or the determination of U.S. monetary policy, Pulte is jumping into both of these arenas from his perch atop the agency in charge of guaranteeing mortgage loans. What is Pulte's job as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency? Pulte oversees government-backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the main guarantors of mortgage credit for households. Together, they have roughly $7.5 trillion in assets and more than $100 billion in equity. He also oversees the agency's 11 federal home loan banks. Prior to the 2008 market crash, Fannie and Freddie were private companies that operated with extra regulations to keep them stable and affordable, similar to utilities. In 2008, they were nationalized into a government conservatorship, though they still make money by buying commercial loans, guaranteeing them, and selling them as securities. This is a busy time for the FHFA as the Trump administration is considering whether to re-privatize Fannie and Freddie, a move that could transform mortgage markets after 15 years under government stewardship. 'Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing very well, throwing off a lot of cash, and the time would seem to be right,' Trump said in May. 'Stay tuned!' It's a fraught time in general for the U.S. housing sector, which is facing a housing shortage of between 1.5 and 5.5 million homes and is behaving sluggishly. The Trump administration announced a plan in March to sell about 625 square miles of federal suburban federal lands for new housing, but there hasn't been a significant update from the administration about that in a few months. Pulte has been going after Powell Through media appearances and social media posts, Pulte has homed in on Trump's political foes. Following Trump's relentless criticism of the Federal Reserve, Pulte has frequently blasted Fed Chair Jerome Powell, even accusing him of lying. 'Jerome Powell, again, lies to the American people,' he wrote on the social website X in July. 'This time [he is] saying that the Fed has nothing to do with housing. The Fed has everything to do with housing.' Pulte has accused Powell of strangling the housing market by keeping interest rates unnecessarily high, an argument Trump has shared when attacking the Fed chair. The Fed's overnight interbank rates affect financing levels in many parts of the economy. They tend to undergird mortgage rates, but mortgage rates much more closely track 10-year Treasury yields, which are not set by the Fed. Powell is also just one of more than a dozen Fed officials who have voted to keep interest rates steady, with some breaking from him in recent weeks. 'I'd be happy if we had a different chair,' Pulte told CNBC in a Wednesday interview. Banking experts told The Hill that the pressure campaign on the Fed from Trump's executive is unprecedented in the U.S. and that similar initiatives have only happened on a comparable scale in other countries. 'If you think of Hungary, Turkey, and India to a certain extent – there have been episodes like that,' Nicolas Véron, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute, told The Hill. 'In the U.S., it's correct to say that since the creation of the Fed … I don't think there's been anything like this.' A flurry of mortgage fraud accusations Mortgage fraud accusations have been coming fast and furious from Pulte, aimed not just at Fed Governor Lisa Cook but at other top political opponents of the president — New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Schiff led the first impeachment effort in the House against Trump and supported the Jan. 6 Congressional committee's investigation into the riot at the Capitol. James has sued Trump and his administration multiple times. In 2024, her office won a $454 million judgment against the president and his companies in a case alleging he lied about how much his assets were worth on financial statements. Cook said in a statement she has no intention of stepping down from her post and that she is 'gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions' pertaining to her financial history. Pulte said Wednesday that it was part of his job to refer alleged cases of mortgage fraud to the Justice Department. 'If it didn't end up on my desk, I wouldn't be doing my job,' he said. Housing advocates told The Hill they want to see greater attention to social housing policy from Pulte and less attention to individual mortgage fraud claims. 'The [FHFA] can and should be the foremost vehicle for making housing affordable and protecting tenants against landlord abuses,' Tara Raghuveer, director of the Tenant Union Federation, told The Hill. 'Instead, Pulte is using his position to do favors for Trump by attacking his political enemies.' A similar background to Trump Pulte and Trump have a similar professional background. Both men come from family businesses in the real estate sector and made money in development. Pulte's grandfather founded Pulte Group, a housing construction firm that operates under the brands Pulte Homes, Centex, Del Webb, DiVosta, American West, and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods, according to its website. According to financial data company Whale Wisdom, Pulte Group controlled 228,296 lots in 2021, of which 109,078 were owned and 119,218 were under land option agreements. Pulte himself founded Pulte Capital Partners, an investment firm worth more than $50 million, according to his personal financial disclosure. He disclosed more than $80 million in assets related to housing, property management, or air conditioning and heating companies in his 2025 financial disclosure form. Stylistically, Trump and Pulte both have a fondness for social media, firing off posts and making bold claims about their enemies. 'Soon, unemployed,' Pulte posted on social media above a picture of Powell and Cook.
