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NBC News
an hour ago
- Business
- NBC News
Natural disaster victims would get six months of mortgage relief under Senate bill
LOS ANGELES — Natural disaster survivors would be eligible for six months of mortgage relief under a bill introduced Thursday by two senators whose states have been ravaged by wildfires and floods. The Mortgage Relief for Disaster Survivors Act would apply to homeowners with federally backed loans in areas declared disasters since Jan. 1 without accumulating interest or penalties during the six-month period. Borrowers could apply for additional six-month extensions. 'Earlier this year, we watched as families in Los Angeles were devastated by wildfires, and to date, many homeowners are still struggling to rebuild from this disaster,' said Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is co-sponsoring the bill. 'As natural disasters become more frequent due to climate change, it is critical that we pave a path to stability for homeowners in times of crisis,' he added. Parts of Schiff's former congressional district in Southern California were devoured in January when the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, destroying nearly 6,000 homes and killing at least 19 people. His co-sponsor is Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., whose state was ravaged by the 2021 Marshall Fire, which damaged or destroyed some 1,200 homes in Boulder County. 'Coloradans know all too well how difficult it is to pick up the pieces and move forward after catastrophic wildfires,' Bennet said. 'When mounting financial and emotional costs of recovery weigh on families, they should be able to take time to put their lives back together and rebuild their homes.' House members who represent Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu in California introduced a companion bill this year that would provide 180 days of mortgage relief without penalties or late fees. The pause would apply only to federally backed loans. Nonfederal lenders are not required to offer payment reprieves to homeowners in disaster zones. But after the Palisades and Eaton fires, more than 400 lenders agreed to a 90-day pause without reporting the missed payments to credit agencies. Eaton Fire survivor Freddy Sayegh said he took advantage of the program after heavy smoke damage prevented him from returning to his Altadena home. He has since moved his family seven times and incurred thousands of dollars of unforeseen costs for food, clothing and other immediate needs. Some of the costs were covered by insurance, but much of the money came out of his pocket while he awaits compensation. He dipped into his savings when the 90 days were over and paid his delinquent mortgage in a lump sum, fearing he would incur fees or be forced to refinance. 'It actually placed a lot of pressure to come up with three months all at once,' he said. 'There's a lot of people who don't have three months of savings.' In Texas, where cataclysmic flooding that began July 2 caused an estimated $240 million in damage, officials announced a 90-day foreclosure moratorium that prohibits mortgage companies from initiating or completing foreclosures in Kerr County, the area hardest hit by the disaster. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, delinquencies nearly doubled nationally in March compared with the same time last year, up 21% from 12%. In California, wildfire-related delinquencies peaked in March at 4,100 and fell to 2,240 in June, according to the data tracking company ICE Mortgage Technology. The trend follows a pattern seen after other natural disasters, in which delinquencies spike in the months immediately following catastrophes and gradually level out over the next 18 to 24 months, said Andy Walden, head of mortgage and housing market research at Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of ICE Mortgage Technology. 'It takes time for many homeowners to untangle finances while dealing with the emotional and logistical aftermath of losing their homes,' he said. 'From navigating insurance claims to working with FEMA, borrowers often need time to stabilize. Foreclosure moratoriums introduced after major disasters often give families the breathing room they need to recover.' Former Altadena resident Keni 'Arts' Davis stared down at a 10-year mortgage when his home of nearly four decades was destroyed. He has moved six times since then, finally landing close to the neighborhood he loved so much. Much of his recovery journey included negotiating with his insurance company to pay off his mortgage, rather than borrowing or seeking an extension. 'It might have meant financial ruin,' he said. He intends to rebuild by cobbling together the money through savings and microloans that are sometimes just $500. He said that the mortgage relief bills sound good on paper but that their timing leaves something to be desired. 'My grandmother would have said it's a day late and a dollar short,' he said. 'We're all just depending on any help we can get to make it one day to the next.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump admin rebuffs Schiff, reopening massive Pacific oil reserve capable of 80% of regional production
A major Pacific oil reserve offline for a decade was restarted in only five months of work by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, despite pleas from Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and completion of a reported laundry list of permitting and reviews. The Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) announced Friday it has shepherded the reopening of the Santa Ynez Unit of the Pacific oil-producing region, which holds an estimated 190 million barrels of recoverable potential. "The Trump administration is restoring energy independence and unleashing the full potential of American offshore resources like never before," an Interior Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "Under the leadership of Secretary Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior has taken decisive action to cut through red tape and streamline permitting processes that had stalled the development of Sable's offshore energy resources for years." Kash Patel Enrages Adam Schiff In Clintonian Battle Over The Word 'We' Santa Ynez has been off-limits since 2015, when an aging pipe broke and caused what NOAA said was 500 barrels of oil flowing into the ocean of the estimated 2,900 barrels released. Read On The Fox News App Houston-based Sable Energy purchased the site from ExxonMobil in 2024 and sought to reopen several platforms; the Trump administration has now obliged. BSEE Deputy Director Kenneth Stevens said President Donald Trump made it clear U.S. energy should come from American resources and that the agency "helped bring oil back online safely and efficiently." "That's what 'energy dominance' looks like: results, not delays," he said, predicting three oil platforms to be online by the end of the year. The agency further described the move as going from zero energy in the Pacific for the past 10 years to near-full production in a matter of months. 'Homeland Would've Been Stolen': Ak Natives Sound Off On Biden Energy Bans As Trump Officials Tour Tundra Schiff, along with Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., has been vocally opposed to Santa Ynez reopening. In March, they wrote to California Gov. Gavin Newsom saying how the region is "still reeling from the fires in Los Angeles." "In addition, we face threats from the Trump administration to expand oil drilling everywhere, including offshore California, and to gut federal policies and agencies that protect our environment and tackle the ongoing climate crisis. As we know all too well, fossil fuel-driven climate change is severely impacting California and setting the stage for unprecedented disasters like the one we just experienced in Los Angeles," they said. "The economic, environmental, and human costs in our state are immeasurable." A source familiar with the reopening process confirmed that Interior had to navigate a slew of permitting, environmental approvals and regulatory roadblocks from Sacramento. Schiff and Carbajal warned of the "corrosion-prone pipeline" and reminded Sacramento of the Refugio spill. They thanked Newsom for "standing up to the threat of new federal offshore oil leasing." In April, Carbajal introduced a bill to permanently ban offshore oil exploration in California on the Outer Continental Shelf. "Santa Barbara knows firsthand how devastating oil spills can be on our marine ecosystems and coastline," he said in a statement at the time, adding California's "world-famous coastline [must be] protected for future generations to enjoy." Fox News Digital reached out to Schiff and Carbajal for article source: Trump admin rebuffs Schiff, reopening massive Pacific oil reserve capable of 80% of regional production
Fox News
3 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
How Trump's 'no shrinking violets' DOJ is digging in on Schiff's mortgage dealings as legal peril looms
The Department of Justice is likely digging into Sen. Adam Schiff's mortgage paperwork trail stretching back to a Maryland home purchase from the early 2000s as it weighs whether it has an airtight case to potentially prosecute the longtime political foe of President Donald Trump, according to a Cornell Law School professor. "The one thing they don't want to do is to bring a case that fails," William Jacobson told Fox Digital in a Zoom interview, referring to the DOJ potentially investigating Schiff's alleged mortgage fraud. Jacobson is a clinical professor and the Director of the Securities Law Clinic at Cornell. "Either it fails legally, or it fails in court. They don't want to lose that case if you're going against a major political opponent. And that's part of the calculation that will take place." Jacobson talked about the ins and outs of the Democratic California senator's potential legal woes following the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency sending a letter to the DOJ this year claiming that Schiff falsified banking and property documents by listing two homes – on two separate coasts – as his primary residence out of an effort to allegedly get more favorable loans. The DOJ has not yet said whether it would take up the case, but is likely digging into Schiff's paper trail as it weighs whether to move forward, Jacobson explained. "I would expect that the first thing the Department of Justice is going to do is to gather documents. There will be a paper trail here. There will be many things that are documentable, and not 'he said, she said,' as to where Adam Schiff was actually living," he said. As investigators go through the documents, they will ask questions such as: What was his actual primary residence? What did he sign? Who was present when he signed? Did he have conversations with people about it? The law professor, who founded the popular conservative legal blog Legal Insurrection, said that there will likely be a "significant paper trail" to go through due to the case stretching back more than 20 years and due to companies keeping tight records following the 2008 financial crash. "Mortgage companies preserve all of these things because of the financial crisis and other things. They have to maintain these records. . . . And I would expect that that would be the first thing the Department of Justice would look at is the paper trail and the circumstantial evidence as to where Adam Schiff was, in fact, living," he continued, remarking that there are "no shrinking violets" at the Trump DOJ. Schiff first fell under scrutiny this year in May, when the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice sounding the alarm that, in "multiple instances," Schiff allegedly "falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property." At the heart of the issue are two properties purchased by Schiff: a home purchased in 2003 in Potomac, Maryland, for $870,000 under a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage agreement for $610,000 at a rate of 5.625% over a term of 30 years, and a 2009 Burbank, Calif., condo. Schiff reaffirmed the Potomac property as his principal residence in mortgage refinancing paperwork in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013, according to the FHFA letter to the DOJ. Over the same time frame, Schiff took a homeowner's tax exemption on the Burbank condo while also claiming that home as his primary residence for a $7,000 reduction off of the 1% property tax, FHFA Director William Pulte wrote in the letter to the DOJ, citing media reports. In 2023, the letter continued, a spokesperson for Schiff asserted that "Adam's primary residence is Burbank, California, and will remain so when he wins the Senate seat." FHFA is an independent federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank System. In 2020, Schiff refinanced his mortgage, listing his Maryland home as his secondary residence. Trump publicly slammed Schiff over his mortgages in July on Truth Social, accusing him of fraud and putting the issue back on the public's radar following 2023 news reports on Schiff's homes in Maryland and California. "I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist," Trump posted to Truth Social Tuesday. "And now I learn that Fannie Mae's Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud." "Adam Schiff said that his primary residence was in MARYLAND to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA. I always knew Adam Schiff was a Crook. The FRAUD began with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued through multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020." Schiff has repeatedly denied and brushed off the accusations, including refusing to answer questions from Fox News Digital about his alleged mortgage fraud when confronted in the nation's capital on July 16. "Since I led his first impeachment, Trump has repeatedly called for me to be arrested for treason. So in a way, I guess this is a bit of a letdown. And this baseless attempt at political retribution won't stop me from holding him accountable. Not by a long shot," he posted to X in July following Trump's initial Truth Social attack on Schiff's mortgages. "This is just Donald Trump's latest attempt at political retaliation against his perceived enemies. So it is not a surprise, only how weak this false allegation turns out to be. And much as Trump may hope, this smear will not distract from his Epstein files problem," he added. Schiff's primary residence discrepancies first hit the public's radar in 2023, when Schiff launched an ultimately successful campaign to serve in the Senate after decades in the U.S. House. CNN published the first news article detailing that Schiff had claimed the Maryland home as a primary residence while also taking a homeowner's tax exemption on the Burbank condo. The campaign said at the time that Schiff's two properties were listed as primary residences "for loan purposes because they are both occupied throughout the year and to distinguish them from a vacation property." Trump and Schiff have long been political foes, which was underscored during Trump's first administration when Schiff served as the lead House manager during the first impeachment trial against Trump in 2020, and when Schiff repeatedly promoted claims that Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Days after Trump first posted about Schiff's mortgages in Maryland and California, the president's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified documents that reportedly show "overwhelming evidence" that then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe after Trump's election win against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. Schiff was an incredibly vocal lawmaker amid the Russian collusion claims, most notably when the House censured him in 2023 over his promotion that Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Schiff served in the House representing California from 2001 to 2024, when he was sworn-in as a senator after his successful 2024 campaign to serve in the nation's upper chamber. Schiff served as the ranking member of the House intelligence committee from 2015 to 2019, before becoming the committee's chair from 2019 to 2023. In that role, he was kept up to date on classified materials surrounding the Russian collusion claims. Trump also recently invoked Gabbard's alleged revelations while attacking Schiff over his mortgages in another Truth Social post. Trump went on to ominously warn during a White House event last week that Schiff has "a lot of other things far worse than" his mortgage inquiry. "He defrauded banks and insurance companies and the federal government, but it's, very simple. It's mortgage loan fraud ... But he has a lot of other things far worse than that. So no Adam Schiff, they have him 100% on mortgage fraud," Trump said last Tuesday from the White House while hosting a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Jacobson said that Democrats have boxed themselves out of attempting to claim that Trump is targeting a political foe over the mortgage criminal referral because the party had spent the last decade launching "lawfare" at Trump. "One of the ironies here that I think everybody understands, is that Democrats launched a lawfare campaign against Donald Trump. And it didn't just start once he took office this year. It's been going on for a decade," he said. "They have used every tool available to try to destroy him, including through criminal prosecutions, including through federal investigations. . . . They've really tried to get him. And for them now to say, 'oh, just because we did that to you for 10 years doesn't give you the right to do it to us.' Legally, that's sound. I mean, you have to prove your case in court. But politically, I don't think that's going to fly. Democrats screaming that Donald Trump is weaponizing prosecutors against them is not going to really impress a lot of people." Jacobson speculated that there will likely be more woes for Schiff in the coming days, but that potential legal cases hinge on prosecutors. "We don't know where this is going ahead, of course, but it does appear that Adam Schiff is in the sights of Donald Trump. No surprise about that, because Donald Trump has been in the sights of Adam Schiff for a decade. So, I fully expect that there will be more here. The question is going to be really though, once it moves into the realm of prosecution, what are the prosecutors going to do?" The Department of Justice declined comment when approached about potentially investigating and taking up the Schiff case. Schiff's office did not respond to Fox Digital's request for comment.
Fox News
3 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Could Senator Adam Schiff really go to jail over alleged mortgage fraud?
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte sent a criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi in May alleging that California Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff "has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property." What is the gist of the complaint? That Schiff, while representing a California district in the House of Representatives, falsely listed his posh Maryland home as his primary residence in order to get more favorable loan terms when, in truth and in fact, his California condo, which he designated as his primary residence in order to qualify for a California homeowner's tax exemption, was his real primary residence. Even worse, according to the referral, Schiff claimed his Burbank condo as his primary/principal residence in California tax filings during the same years he listed his Maryland home as his primary/principal residence on loan applications to finance that home. Schiff's response to the criminal referral and to subsequent Truth Social posts by President Donald Trump was one we often see in white collar cases. Per the senator's office, "the lenders who provided the mortgages for both homes were well aware of then-Representative Schiff's Congressional service and of his intended year-round use of both homes, neither of which were vacation homes." That's not much of a denial, senator. The question is whether you lied on these forms or not. Were your answers accurate or not, and if they were inaccurate, were the answers a mistake or intentional? The devil is always in the details in white-collar cases like this. Which representatives of which particular lenders "were well aware" that Schiff intended to use both homes year-round, and why does that matter? The issue is whether Schiff intentionally lied on federal or state forms to gain a financial advantage. If he falsely listed his Maryland home as his primary residence in order to get a lower interest rate, that matters too. (After all, similar alleged falsehoods by Donald Trump were used by New York Attorney General Letitia James to go after Trump in her massive New York state civil action.) Did Schiff lie on California tax forms to gain an exemption he was not entitled to, and, if so, does it implicate any federal criminal statutes? This is what inquiring minds want to know, and we just don't have enough information at this stage to know all the answers. Based on what we do know, how likely is it that Schiff will be indicted for violating one of several federal bank fraud statutes that potentially cover his conduct? Not very likely. Here are several reasons why: The devil is always in the details in white-collar cases like this. Which representatives of which particular lenders "were well aware" that Schiff intended to use both homes year-round, and why does that matter? This leaves open the possibility of a state of California prosecution for filing false tax returns. Would you care to place any bets on that happening? The bottom line is this: Schiff's alleged conduct may be sleazy and his explanation shifty, but a criminal charge at the federal or state level does not seem to be in the offing.
Fox News
5 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Cornell Law professor discusses Sen. Adam Schiff's mortgage fraud investigation
Cornell Law School Professor William Jacobson spoke to Fox News Digital to provide his legal insight on the investigation into California Sen. Adam Schiff's mortgages stretching back to the early 2000s.
