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"                      <p class=\"imgtitle\">Harris</p>           SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - California Attorney General Kamala Harris has reportedly subpoenaed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of her own state investigation into mortgage foreclosure practices.<br /><br />A source close to the investigation told the <a href=\"http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-mortgage-probe-20111117,0,7829931.story\" class=\"copy\">Los Angeles Times </a>Wednesday that Harris' office wants more information on the two companies' procedures involving mortgage servicing and home repossession.<br /><br />The attorney general also wants details on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's buying of securities holding so-called \"toxic mortgages\" in the state, the source told the Times.<br /><br />Neither the Attorney General's Office nor the companies would comment on the investigation.<br /><br />Earlier this month, Harris told the head of a federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to \"step aside\" if he wouldn't help homeowners.<br /><br />Harris put pressure on Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, for continuing to refuse to lower mortgage loans for troubled homeowners.<br /><br />\"It has become clear to me that the only way to keep distressed California homeowners in their homes is through meaningful principal reduction,\" Harris said in a statement.<br /><br />Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- despite owning an ample chunk of the mortgage debt in the country -- are not part of the ongoing settlement talks with Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Ally Financial Inc. and Bank of America.<br /><br />In September, Harris backed out of the talks with the nation's top mortgage servicers.<br /><br />In a letter to Associate U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perrelli and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is heading up the talks, she called the rumored $20 billion deal \"inadequate\" for homeowners, saying it provided to much protection for financial institutions.<br /><br />\"After much consideration, I have concluded that this is not the deal California homeowners have been waiting for,\" the attorney general wrote.<br /><br />\"(The) relief contemplated would allow too few California homeowners to stay in their homes.\"<br /><br />The probe began last October with inquiries into so-called \"robosigning\" practices by several mortgage companies, and has since broadened into identifying and addressing additional alleged improper foreclosure practices.<br /><br /><em>From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by email at jessica@legalnewsline.com.</em>"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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