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EXCLUSIVE: New York state’s Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offices will permanently close in direct in response to Attorney General Letitia James’ “corrupt and dangerous business practices” in the state, Fox News Digital exclusively learned Thursday.
“We are shutting down the two New York offices for Fannie and Freddie as a result of Letitia James’ corrupt and dangerous business practices in the state,” a source close to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees the government-sponsored enterprises, told Fox News Digital.
A public announcement on the closures is set for later Thursday, Fox News Digital learned.
“We’ll still employ New York residents, and we’ll still continue to do mortgage loans in New York, of course. But we are going to eliminate our physical presence. And to the extent that we have leases, we are going to be subleasing those,” the source continued.
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The FHFA is an independent federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank System.
James is a longtime political foe of President Donald Trump’s, including campaigning for the attorney general job in 2018 by vowing to aggressively pursue legal charges against Trump if elected, adding she’d expose the “con man” after her win that year.
Her office leveled nearly 100 legal challenges against the first Trump administration and added after his second presidential win in 2024 that she would continue challenging him in the courts to “defend the rights of New Yorkers and the rule of law.”
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The anticipated shuttering of Fannie and Freddie in New York comes after the Department of Justice opened an investigation into James’ personal mortgages in May, when Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Bill Pulte sent a criminal referral to the department back in April over claims James falsified mortgage records to obtain more favorable loans.
A Norfolk, Virginia, home James purchased in 2023 is at the heart of the investigation. James identified the home on mortgage documents and a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac form as a property that would serve as her primary residence, according to the criminal referral Pulte sent the Department of Justice in April.
James is legally required to live in New York as a statewide elected official in the Empire State.
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The criminal referral also cited past reported issues with James’ properties, including a 2001 purchase of a Brooklyn property. The certificate of occupancy lists the property as a five-unit residence, while James’ mortgages list the property as four units, which could affect mortgage agreements.
James had denied wrongdoing, including her office telling the New York Times in April that a separate loan application for the 2023 Norfolk, Virginia, home purchase reportedly indicated she would not live at the property full-time, and that her mortgage agreement did not require her to occupy the property as her primary residence.
James attorney, Abbe Lowell, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in April arguing the criminal referral was “three pages of stale, threadbare allegations with no reason to proceed other than they are ‘based on media reports’ and are the next salvo in President Trump’s revenge tour against Attorney General James.”
Fox News Digital reached out to James’ office for comment on the planned closures Thursday afternoon but did not immediately receive a reply.
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