Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte has referred possible criminal activity involving Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook to Attorney General Pam Bondi for investigation and action as appropriate. Pulte’s letter states, “According to mortgage documents obtained by U. S. Federal Housing, it appears an individual, Ms. Lisa DeNell Cook, has falsified bank documents and property records to acquired more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute.”
Since at least May 2022, Cook has been required to live in the Washington, D.C., metro area. Her exact date of moving to D.C. is unclear, but she was part of Joe Biden’s transition agency review team as of November 2020 and was nominated for the Federal Reserve job in January 2021. The shenanigans started in the summer of 2021.
On June 18, 2021, Cook took a fifteen-year mortgage for $203,000 for a house in Ann Arbor, MI, which she said was to be her “primary residence,” and she promised to live there full-time “for at least one year.” A mere fourteen days later, she took out another mortgage for a condo in Atlanta’s “Above the Four Seasons” building for $540,000. Again, she stated this would be her primary residence and she would live there for at least one year. By September 2022, her Atlanta condo was listed for rent but “a review of Ms. Cook’s federal government financial disclosures for calendar years 2022 and 2023 indicate that she has not disclosed any rental income tied to this address.” Hmmm… I wonder if the IRS is taking notes.
U.S. Federal Housing FHFA, alleges in a Criminal Referral to the Department of Justice that Federal Reserve Governor, Lisa D. Cook, committed mortgage fraud by designating her out of state condo as her primary residence, just two weeks after taking a loan on her Michigan home… pic.twitter.com/3hlknQ4yzF
— Pulte (@pulte) August 20, 2025
Here is the Criminal Referral Letter on Lisa Cook, the current Fed Governor. pic.twitter.com/aG0LGnokei
— Pulte (@pulte) August 20, 2025
This is unfolding in much the same way it did with California Congressman Adam Schiff (see Hoo Boy: Schiff Mortgage Story Heats Up Big Time With Report of Criminal Referral – RedState) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (Letitia James Lashes Out to ‘Explain’ Her Alleged Mortgage Fraud, and She Just Might Be Toast – RedState). In both cases, they purchased property, certifying it as their primary residence, to secure better loan terms. In both cases, they lied. In James’s case, the paper trail shows she deliberately lied.
President Trump has demanded Cook’s resignation.
Cook must resign, now!!!
If you recall, Lisa Cook was outed as having plagiarized her published “research.” So it isn’t as if the Fed would be losing the mega-brain that holds the U.S. economy together. (Read the whole article; you need to see Biden’s standards for critical appointees.)
Lisa D. Cook is one of the world’s most powerful economists. She taught economics at Harvard University and Michigan State University and served on the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisers before being appointed, in 2022, to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, which controls the interest rates and money supply of the United States.
Despite her pedigree, questions have long persisted about her academic record. Her publication history is remarkably thin for a tenured professor, and her published work largely focuses on race activism rather than on rigorous, quantitative economics. Her nomination to the Fed required Vice President Kamala Harris to cast a tie-breaking vote; by contrast, her predecessor in the seat, Janet Yellen, now Treasury secretary, was confirmed unanimously.
Cook also seems to have consistently inflated her own credentials. In 2022, investigative journalist Christopher Brunet pointed out that, despite billing herself as a macroeconomist, Cook had never published a peer-reviewed macroeconomics article and had misrepresented her publication history in her CV, claiming that she had published an article in the journal American Economic Review. In truth, the article was published in American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, a less prestigious, non-peer-reviewed magazine.
…
In a series of academic papers spanning more than a decade, Cook appears to have copied language from other scholars without proper quotation and duplicated her own work and that of coauthors in multiple academic journals without proper attribution. Both practices appear to violate Michigan State University’s own written academic standards.
All of this takes place in the context of a larger effort by President Trump to increase his control over the Federal Reserve, rather than some self-anointed priesthood. The Fed has seven governors. One of those slots is a vacancy.
- Jerome Powell. Appointed by President Trump in 2018, reappointed by Joe Biden in 2022. His term as chairman expires in May 2026, but his official term ends in 2028.
- Philip Jefferson. Appointed by Joe Biden in 2022. His term expires in 2036.
- Michelle Bowman. Appointed by President Trump in 2018. Her term expires in 2034.
- Christopher Waller. Appointed by President Trump in 2020. His term expires in 2030.
- Lisa Cook. Appointed by Joe Biden in 2022 to fill an unfinished term. Reappointed in 2024. Her term expires in 2038.
- Michael Barr. Appointed by Joe Biden in 2022. His term ends in 2032.
- (Vacant) Stephen Miran. Nominated in August 2025 by President Trump. Not yet confirmed.
In the last round of interest rate evaluation, Bowman and Waller voted to drop the prime rate and lost. When the Senate gets around to confirming Miran, Trump will have three allies on the Fed’s board. If Cook is forced to resign, which seems inevitable at this point, Trump will have four votes on the Fed. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is considering firing Cook.
The only way for Trump to fire a Fed governor is “for cause,” according to a 1935 law. That standard has generally been interpreted to mean dereliction of duty or malfeasance. The Supreme Court suggested in May that Federal Reserve employees were protected under the law. In that ruling, the court said the Fed was different from other agencies because it “is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity,” suggesting that Fed officials lie beyond Trump’s reach.
Columbia University law professor Lev Menand said it isn’t clear whether any alleged malfeasance that happened before an official takes office would be a legally sufficient reason to fire Cook. “I think prior private misconduct would be a stretch,” he said.
This argument is ludicrous. “For cause” certainly encompasses “private misconduct,” particularly when it directly relates to the job one is performing. Having an indicted fraudster on the Fed is not acceptable.
Replacing Cook on the Board and Powell as chairman next May would give Trump complete control of U.S. monetary policy, which can then be coordinated with regulatory and trade reforms to boost the U.S. economy.
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