President Trump says that Senator Schiff must be “brought to justice” over allegations that the lawmaker engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud.” If the Trump administration moves against the longtime member of Congress, Mr. Schiff would be the second high-profile Democrat to face such an investigation. 

The president made the accusation in a Truth Social post early Tuesday, charging that Mr. Schiff submitted paperwork in 2009 saying his primary residence was in Maryland — not his home state of California. Mr. Trump provided no evidence for the accusation, but said that the government’s top sponsored housing financing corporation was looking into it. 

“I have always suspected Shifty Adam [Schiff] was a scam artist. And now I learn that Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division [has] concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “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.”

A source in Mr. Schiff’s office confirmed that he did purchase a home in Maryland to raise his family because he would otherwise be thousands of miles from home as a member of Congress. 

“He also maintained a home in California where he lived when not in Washington. 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,” the source said. 

“It’s clear that President Trump is trying to desperately smear Senator Schiff in order to distract from his Epstein files problems,” they added. 

A spokesman for Fannie Mae did not immediately respond. 

“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,” Mr. Trump claimed.

“Mortgage Fraud is very serious, and CROOKED Adam Schiff (now a Senator) needs to be brought to justice,” the president wrote. 

Members of Congress are not required to live in their home districts but they are required by the U.S. Constitution to live in the state from which they were elected. Mr. Schiff was elected in California.

The United States attorneys offices for Central California, Maryland, and the District of Columbia did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment about the president’s allegations. 

If a criminal probe is opened into Mr. Schiff, it would make him the second high-profile elected Democrat to face a mortgage fraud investigation from the Trump administration. New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, is already facing prosecutorial scrutiny after successfully convicting the then-former president on more than two dozen felony counts. 

Like Ms. James, Mr. Schiff was responsible for a high-profile prosecution of the president, though the Californian’s effort was ultimately unsuccessful. Mr. Schiff, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was the leader of the Democrats’ 2019 impeachment investigation into Mr. Trump, which was successful in the House, though it died in the Senate.