The U.S. Department of Justice has appointed Ed Martin, a former presidential pardon attorney, as special prosecutor to oversee parallel federal investigations into Sen. Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Media reports on 9 August indicate that Attorney General Pam Bondi tapped Martin to direct grand-jury inquiries examining separate allegations of mortgage and financial fraud. The probe into James focuses on claims that she engaged in a four-decade pattern of falsifying mortgage documents and misreporting property information, conduct that critics say contradicts the standards she applied in her high-profile civil fraud case against Donald Trump. Schiff faces a separate investigation involving mortgage-related irregularities highlighted in a confidential Fannie Mae memorandum, according to people familiar with the matter. Schiff’s attorney, former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, has asked the Justice Department to remove Martin, citing what he calls the prosecutor’s public defense of Jan. 6 defendants as evidence of bias. Representative Jamie Raskin labeled the appointment part of a “political revenge tour,” while conservative commentators welcomed the move as overdue accountability. The Justice Department has not announced a timetable for the inquiries, and neither James nor Schiff has been charged.