Paper Trail Scandal: How the 'Deep State' stopped a retribution plot
Bill Pulte and Ed Martin tried to weaponize the boring machinery of the FHFA against Adam Schiff. Instead, they walked into a grand jury trap.
In the grand, sweaty canon of American political scandals, we usually expect a certain level of cinematic flair. We expect break-ins at the Watergate, arms-for-hostages deals in Iran, or at least a blue dress. We expect the villains to be shadowy operatives with silenced pistols or silenced consciences, moving through the night with professional efficiency.
We do not expect the weapon of choice to be a loan-to-value ratio.
And yet, here we are in the winter of 2025. The latest “Constitutional Crisis” isn’t about troops in the streets or seized voting machines. It is about the misuse of federal personnel forms at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
If you are just tuning in, the reported grand jury investigation in Maryland into FHFA Director Bill Pulte and Justice Department prosecutor Ed Martin is easily the funniest, saddest, and most revealing chapter of the “Retribution Tour” so far. The allegation? That they improperly deputized unauthorized individuals to dig up mortgage fraud dirt on the President’s enemies—specifically Rep. Adam Schiff and others who dared to cross the MAGA Rubicon.
They tried to weaponize the actuarial tables. And in doing so, they managed to illustrate exactly why the "Deep State"—that mythical dragon the administration promised to slay—is actually just a series of boring, immovable procedural walls designed to stop exactly this kind of amateur hour.
Plumbers of 2025
To understand the sheer stupidity of what allegedly went down, you have to understand the mechanics of the federal bureaucracy. It is a machine built on a foundation of "Cover Your Ass." Every meeting has minutes; every decision has a memo; every investigator has a badge, a GS-rating, and a background check.
When you want to investigate a sitting member of Congress for mortgage fraud, you don’t just do it. You open a file. You get sign-offs. You navigate the precarious politics of the Public Integrity Section.
Apparently, Bill Pulte and Ed Martin didn’t have the patience for that.
According to reports, they bypassed the career prosecutors—the "Deep State" lifers who probably looked at the evidence against Schiff, saw a standard refinancing agreement, and yawned. Instead, they allegedly brought in "unauthorized" help. They tried to hot-wire the Justice Department.
This is the bureaucratic equivalent of the Watergate Plumbers, but instead of breaking into a psychiatrist’s office, they were trying to break into the underwriting department of Fannie Mae. And just like G. Gordon Liddy’s crew, they forgot that the cover-up (or in this case, the hiring process) is always what gets you.
The Maryland grand jury isn’t investigating whether Adam Schiff lied about his income on a loan application. They are investigating whether the people hunting Schiff committed a felony by showing confidential government documents to their buddies. It is a “process crime,” yes. But in Washington, process is the only god that matters.
Weaponization of Boredom
There is something chillingly brilliant, however, about the intent here. We used to worry about the IRS targeting political enemies. That’s old school. The IRS is scary, but everyone expects them to be the bad guys.
The FHFA? The agency that regulates the secondary mortgage market? That is a stroke of evil genius.
Housing is the universal American vulnerability. Almost everyone with a modicum of power in D.C. owns a home. Most of them have mortgages. Most of those mortgages are backed by Fannie or Freddie. This means, theoretically, the FHFA has leverage over the personal equity of half the town.
By targeting mortgage applications, the administration wasn't trying to put Adam Schiff in prison for treason. That’s too hard. They were trying to bankrupt him. They were trying to find that one unchecked box, that one inflated asset valuation, that one forgotten liability from 2018. They were trying to Al Capone him.
It’s the weaponization of boredom. They wanted to turn the mundane paperwork of suburban existence into a sword of Damocles. If they could do it to Schiff, they could do it to anyone. A journalist, a donor, a judge. "Nice 3.2% fixed rate you have there. Shame if we audited the original appraisal."
Deep State Paradox
But this is where the "Deep State" paradox kicks in. The administration spent years railing against the "unelected bureaucrats" who "block the people's will." They painted the civil service as a nest of vipers.
In reality, the civil service is a nest of tortoises. They are slow, they have thick shells, and they will outlive you.
The reason Pulte and Martin allegedly had to bring in outside help is that the career staff—the actual experts in mortgage fraud—wouldn’t play.
This is the irony of the “Unitary Executive” theory in practice. You can appoint the head of the agency, but you cannot force the GS-13 forensic accountant in the basement to fabricate a crime. If you ask them to do something illegal, they won’t just say no; they will write a memo to the file documenting that you asked.
So, the political appointees went rogue. They tried to build a parallel structure. And that is where they died.
The federal government has an immune system. It detects foreign bodies—like unvetted lawyers handling grand jury material—and it attacks them. The removal of internal watchdogs and the Maryland grand jury are simply the white blood cells swarming the infection.
Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
Here is the kicker: By trying to cheat the system to get Schiff, they have likely immunized him forever.
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Adam Schiff did fudge a number on a loan application seven years ago. Let’s say there was a case to be made. That case is now radioactive.
Defense attorneys call this the fruit of the poisonous tree. If the investigation itself was conducted illegally—by unauthorized personnel, using misused documents—then any evidence found is inadmissible. You cannot build a castle of justice on a foundation of sludge.
Schiff’s lawyers are currently popping champagne corks. They don’t have to prove his innocence anymore. They just have to prove that Bill Pulte and Ed Martin broke the rules trying to catch him. The hunters have become the shield.
This is the ultimate failure of the "Retribution Administration." They are so consumed by the ends—punishing their enemies—that they completely ignore the means. And in a constitutional republic, the means are the whole ballgame.
End of Competence
What this story really reveals is not a grand conspiracy, but a terrifying competency crisis.
We are witnessing the end of the era where political fixers knew how to fix things. We are long past the days of James Baker or even a young Karl Rove—men who knew where the levers of power were and how to pull them without leaving fingerprints.
We are now in the era of the "Reply Guy" administration. We have people running agencies whose primary qualification is that they post well on X (formerly Twitter). They treat federal statutes like terms of service agreements—things to be scrolled past and ignored.
Bill Pulte, a man best known for giving away money on the internet to build a following, was put in charge of a sophisticated financial regulator. Ed Martin, a partisan warrior, was unleashed in the DOJ. They acted exactly as you would expect internet-brained partisans to act: they thought they could just do things because they had the power.
They forgot that power in Washington is not absolute; it is leased. And the lease comes with a 10,000-page rulebook.
Coming Collision
So, how does this end?
It ends in a collision between Article II and the federal criminal code. The defense for Pulte and Martin will almost certainly be "The President Said So." They will argue that the President, as head of the executive branch, has the authority to declassify anything, appoint anyone, and investigate whomever he pleases. They will argue that "unauthorized" is a meaningless term when the boss is the Commander-in-Chief.
It is the Nixon Defense updated for the digital age: "If the President's appointees do it, it means it’s not illegal."
The Maryland grand jury will beg to differ. The statutes regarding the handling of 6(e) grand jury material and sensitive financial data are not suggestions. They are laws.
We are heading toward a spectacle where the Justice Department is prosecuting its own appointees for trying to prosecute the President’s enemies. It is a snake eating its own tail, forever.
In the meantime, the message has been sent to the rest of the bureaucracy: Keep your head down. Document everything. Wait them out.
The "Deep State" wins again. Not because it is a secret cabal of masterminds, but because it is the only thing in this town that actually reads the instructions.
VIDEO
Ed Martin out as US Attorney. Here’s why
This YouTube clip provides background on Ed Martin’s contentious confirmation issues earlier in 2025, explaining why his later “unauthorized” role became necessary for the administration.