The Health and Human Services watchdog’s office has been asked to provide a temporary security detail for Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, sources with direct knowledge of the request tell CBS News.
The request for the security detail from the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General is unusual because Pulte’s federal agency is not part of the department.
Pulte received death threats after he asked the Justice Department to investigate New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud, two of the sources said. A grand jury indicted James last fall, but the charges were dismissed after a federal judge determined that the U.S. attorney who secured the indictment had been unlawfully appointed.
Credible threats against Trump administration officials have increased, prompting more and more officials to seek security details.
Earlier this week, the Justice Department confirmed that Attorney General Pam Bondi had recently relocated to a military base. The Department denied a New York Times report that listed threats related to her handling of the Epstein Files as a reason for the move, but did not refute its reporting that she had received threats related to drug cartels.
The request for Pulte was made by FHFA Acting Inspector General Christian Schrank, who until December worked as the deputy inspector general for investigations at the health department, two of the sources added.
Schrank was installed in December, about a month after the White House removed the housing agency’s then-acting inspector general, Joe Allen. His removal came not long after he made efforts to provide key information to prosecutors on the James case, sources familiar with the matter previously said.
A spokesperson for the housing agency declined to comment and referred CBS News to the agency inspector general’s office.
A spokesperson for the health department’s inspector general also declined to comment. A spokesperson for the housing agency’s inspector general didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Government Accountability Office is probing Pulte’s actions as head of the housing agency. Top Senate Democrats wrote to the office late last year to ask the congressional investigative arm to examine “referrals of New York Attorney General Letitia James, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and Rep. Eric Swalwell to the U.S. Department of Justice for mortgage fraud.”
Historically, the health department’s inspector general has operated a small protection branch that provided security for the secretary.
Last year, the protective detail for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy was transferred over to the U.S. Marshals Service because he requires so many agents to cover the detail and receives a large number of credible threats, sources told CBS News.
The housing department inspector general currently provides a security detail for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. The fact the CMS administrator’s detail is being provided by the housing department is somewhat unusual since CMS is still a part of HHS.
FHFA is an independent federal agency created in 2008 to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after they were taken into conservatorship during the housing crisis.
The health department inspector general agents who investigate fraud against government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, were told this week that Pulte requires a temporary protective detail that will entail having two to three agents work during 30-day rotations, several of the sources said. It is expected to begin in the next two to four weeks, with one source adding the detail could last up to 90 days, until FHFA OIG can hire its own agents. The health department’s inspector general will be reimbursed for the cost of the detail, a source said.
The health department’s inspector general’s office has in the past occasionally provided security details for other appointees, apart from the secretary, though they were still HHS employees.
Most notably, the health department’s inspector general’s office provided security for Anthony Fauci, the then-NIH infectious disease specialist who presided over the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, after he received death threats amid a rise in far-right conspiracy theories related to COVID-19.
Fauci’s protection continued after his retirement from the government. During Mr. Trump’s first week in office, he had the protection for Fauci terminated.
More recently, a Maryland man is facing attempted murder charges in Virginia, after he showed up to the Arlington home of Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought last summer clad in a mask, gloves and carrying what appeared to be a gun.
Some Trump administration officials who have received threats moved into military housing, including exiting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House adviser Stephen Miller.