HHS Watchdog Asked to Protect FHFA Chief Bill Pulte After Threats Over James, Schiff, Cook Referrals

CBS News reports that the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General has been asked to provide a temporary security detail for Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte after he received death threats tied to his push for Justice Department investigations of New York Attorney General Letitia James and other prominent officials. The request, made by newly installed FHFA Acting Inspector General Christian Schrank, is highly unusual because FHFA is an independent housing‑finance regulator, not part of HHS, and would divert fraud investigators from their usual Medicare and Medicaid work into protective rotations expected to last 30–90 days. Pulte is already under Government Accountability Office scrutiny after top Senate Democrats asked GAO to probe his referrals of James, Sen. Adam Schiff, Fed Governor Lisa Cook and Rep. Eric Swalwell for alleged mortgage fraud; James herself was indicted by a grand jury last fall, but the case collapsed when a judge ruled the U.S. attorney who secured the indictment was unlawfully appointed. The story underscores a wider spike in credible threats against Trump‑era officials — Attorney General Pam Bondi has relocated to a military base, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s security had to be shifted to the U.S. Marshals Service — and raises fresh questions about how politically charged criminal referrals are feeding both security risks and oversight battles inside the federal bureaucracy.