Did the husbands of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein conspire to make money by using federal grants to buy land for high-speed rail? No, that's not true: There is no evidence either Paul Pelosi or the late Richard Blum were involved in land purchases connected to the California High-Speed Rail project. A social media post saying they were provided no proof. A Pelosi spokesman told Lead Stories "there is no truth to any part of this post."
The claim reappeared in a post on X (archived here) on February 4, 2025, under the title "Doesn't surprise me." The text overlay on an image of Nancy Pelosi said:
Nancy Pelosi's husband buys land with federal grants for a high speed rail system from Sacramento to San Diego. Land he couldn't buy was stolen via eminent domain. Pelosi's husband sells the land purchased with federal funds to Diane Feinstein's husband who got federal grant funds to purchase the land from Pelosi's husband. Then he sells the land to the actual developer of the High Speed rail system who purchased it with federal grants. The people of California and the United States purchased the land 3 times making millions of dollars for both the Pelosi and Feinstein families.
Here is how the post looked at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Feb 5 14:55:45 2025 UTC)
Lead Stories found a similar post dated May 8, 2020 (archived here), on a website called ifunny (archived here), owned by a Cyprus-based company that says the site's aim is "to make the whole world smile."
The claim reappeared on the site on October 8, 2023 (archived here), using a different photograph, this one with Pelosi and Feinstein together:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Feb 5 17:55:00 2025 UTC)
None of the posts provided any evidence supporting the claim, nor did they provide any specifics such as dates of purported purchases, amounts or land locations.
The California High-Speed Rail project (archived here) will ultimately connect San Francisco to San Diego (archived here).
The post on X at the center of this fact check claimed the husband of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, Richard Blum, used federal grants to buy land from Paul Pelosi and then sold the land "to the actual developer of the High Speed rail system."
The California High-Speed Rail Authority is the developer, "responsible for planning, designing, building and operation" of the project (archived here). Lead Stories contacted the Authority to see whether Pelosi or Blum were involved in any land purchases and will update this fact check with any response.
Lead Stories also contacted Pelosi's office. In a text on February 5, 2025, Ian Krager, communications director for Pelosi, said the post was wrong:
There is no truth to any part of this post.
Lead Stories conducted a Google search (archived here) for the terms Paul Pelosi or his company Financial Leasing Services and high speed rail. The search returned no pertinent results:
(Source: Google screenshot taken on Wed Feb 5 19:06:07 2025 UTC)
Blum died in 2022 (archived here). He owned Blum Capital Partners (archived here).
Lead Stories also conducted a Google search for the terms Richard Blum or Blum Capital Partners and high speed rail (archived here). The search returned no pertinent results:
(Source: Google screenshot taken on Wed Feb 5 19:11:08 2025 UTC)
For more Lead Stories fact checks involving claims about Nancy Pelosi, click here.
For another Lead Stories fact check involving the California High-Speed Rail project, click here.
