Once Feinberg completed the paperwork, Jones borrowed $101,800 in February 2003. Countrywide waived five-eighths of a point, or about $625. Jones, now vice president for industry relations at Fannie Mae, acknowledges being told that the V.I.P. unit was handling his loan. Still, he says, he’s shocked to learn of his discount. “I thought I was just getting great service,” he says. “I didn’t know there was a shaving of points.” Williams, who is currently state director for federal residential-mortgage bundler Freddie Mac, declined to comment.

In March 2004, Williams sought a V.I.P. loan for the top aide of a Democratic congressman from North Carolina who was raising concerns about deceptive lending to low-income homebuyers. Williams asked Perry, “Could you please assist Joyce Brayboy, chief of staff to Congressman Mel Watt, with a loan?” Brayboy was considering choosing another lender, he wrote, but “would like to see if Countrywide has a better product.... Joyce reports directly to Congressman Mel Watt, who introduced predatory-lending ­legislation to address unscrupulous lending practices, and they do view Countrywide as a trusted adviser.”

Now senior vice president for the Glover Park Group, a communications consultancy, Brayboy says she “never applied for” and has “never had a mortgage loan with Countrywide, and certainly never had a discussion with anyone about getting special treatment.”

The lobbyist’s contacts extended beyond Congress. In December 2003, Williams notified Perry that the daughter of Alphonso Jackson was seeking a second mortgage. Jackson, a friend and Texas neighbor of President Bush, was then acting secretary of HUD. The daughter’s loan didn’t materialize. But that same month, Jackson, who had already refinanced his Alexandria, Virginia, townhouse through the V.I.P. program, applied for a $308,000 mortgage to buy a vacation home on a golf course in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. His loan came through on January 21, 2004, a week before President Bush named him HUD secretary. Feinberg says both of Jackson’s loans came with discounts.

Jackson resigned in March 2008 amid allegations of cronyism that were unrelated to his Countrywide loans. Defending the transactions, he says that he was a Countrywide customer long before he worked for HUD. Asked if he received breaks on the loans, he says, “Not to my knowledge. If I did, it certainly wasn’t discussed with me.”

Countrywide also lavished V.I.P. loans on former Clinton-administration bigwigs. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala received two loans with rates floated down in 2002. “Angelo asked me to ensure that we ‘knock her socks off’ with our great service,” Brandt emailed Feinberg.

At Mozilo’s urging, former Clinton White House staffer Paul Begala borrowed $484,500 to refinance his McLean, Virginia, home in 2002, but he says he didn’t seek special treatment. Begala was giving a speech to a mortgage bankers group when he met the Countrywide chief. “He disagreed with my political views,” Begala says. “I’m surprised to find I’m a Friend of Angelo.”

Richard Holbrooke, who was an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, also garnered V.I.P. loans, as did his family. Countrywide waived at least 1.25 points, or $15,000, on Holbrooke’s $1.2 million loan in 2003 to refinance a vacation home in Telluride, Colorado. “Per Angelo this loan is to be at zero points,” Perry wrote.

Holbrooke’s wife, author Kati Marton, borrowed a total of $1.4 million to refinance two properties. “These loans are incredibly important to Angelo and as such they are incredibly important to us,” Perry emailed Feinberg. Holbrooke’s son, David, received a half-point discount, or $2,800, on a $559,500 loan when he and his wife refinanced their co-op in a Brooklyn, New York, high-rise, and five-eighths of a point, or $2,600, off when they bought the floor above it.

Countrywide also kept an eye on its own backyard. A managing director emailed Feinberg and Perry on August 12, 2003, letting them know that the company was planning a “highly visible and controversial” expansion of its headquarters in Calabasas, California, and had been “meeting with many city officials to try to develop the proper political strategy” that will provide the company with “the most success. One of those individuals is Robert Yalda, the city’s director of transportation and intergovernmental affairs. He is in the process of buying a house and needs some help.” That day, Yalda applied for a $500,000 mortgage. Now the public works director of Calabasas, Yalda acknowledges seeking a V.I.P. loan but maintains that he acted appropriately because he wasn’t responsible for approving the expansion; his role was to assess its impact on traffic. Countrywide never followed through on the expansion project.

Countrywide carefully weighed the potential political value of a client against the financial cost of a V.I.P. discount. Williams, the lobbyist, encountered internal resistance when he urged a favor for Billings, Montana, mayor Charles Tooley—hardly a household name. Tooley wanted to cancel the private mortgage insurance on his loan in 2002.

Lenz, then Williams’ boss, responded in an email that she was “usually in favor of settling on the side of the borrower with political influence” but doubted that Tooley had much. “In this case, I think the MI payment for the life of the loan has the potential of being a greater number than the Mayor of Billings, Montana’s influence.”