After failing to get Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to resign, President Trump has turned his attention to a new target: Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook.
The president on Wednesday urged Cook to “resign now” after Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte posted a letter on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, asking U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Cook for allegedly committing mortgage fraud in 2021.
Pulte said Cook purchased two properties within two weeks, claiming that both properties — one in Michigan and one in Georgia—would be her primary residence in the loan applications.
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The FHFA director said Cook’s mortgage documents included falsified bank documents and property records, which were used to secure “more favorable” rates for both purchase loans, which were for 15-year and 30-year terms. Cook’s alleged actions, he said, warrant a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation to protect “the safety and the soundness” of the FHFA.
“How can this woman be in charge of interest rates if she is allegedly lying to help her own interest rates?” Pulte said on X.
Here is the Criminal Referral Letter on Lisa Cook, the current Fed Governor. pic.twitter.com/aG0LGnokei
— Pulte (@pulte) August 20, 2025
“I learned from the media that FHFA Director William Pulte posted on social media that he was making a criminal referral based on a mortgage application from four years ago, before I joined the Federal Reserve,” Cook said in a statement to the media. “I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet. I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”
Misrepresenting occupancy status on a mortgage application to obtain a better interest rate is a crime, but borrowers can legally own more than one primary residence in some circumstances, attorney Jon Goodman told The Wall Street Journal.
A 2023 analysis by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found evidence of owner-occupancy fraud in 2 percent to 3 percent of mortgage applications, down from 7 percent in 2006.
Former President Biden nominated Cook, a Michigan State University economist and professor, to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in January 2022. Cook faced a difficult confirmation, with Senate Republicans unilaterally voting against her for being “too partisan” in her focus on gender and racial disparities within the economy. After two votes, Cook was confirmed 51-50, making her the first Black woman to become a Fed governor.
Before joining the Fed, Cook was a White House Council of Economic Advisers staff economist from 2011 to 2012, and was a Fed and bank regulatory policy advisor for President Biden’s 2020 transition team.
Cook is the third person to face mortgage fraud allegations from the Trump administration.
In April, Pulte suggested the DOJ investigate New York Attorney General Letitia James for allegedly making misrepresentations about two properties she owns to secure better loan terms. The Trump administration made similar claims against California Senator Adam Schiff in July. A spokesperson for Schiff told CNN in 2023 that Schiff financed and refinanced properties owned in California and Maryland as his primary residence “because they are both occupied throughout the year and to distinguish them from a vacation property.”
Lenders for both homes “were well aware of then-Representative Schiff’s Congressional service and of his intended year-round use of both homes, neither of which were vacation homes,” a Schiff spokesperson told Inman in July. The spokesperson also said the Trump administration’s decision to resurface the 2023 report was a smear campaign and an attempt to distract the public from the DOJ’s decision not to release records in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation.
Meanwhile James’ attorney, Abbe Lowell, has said Pulte’s accusations were “political retribution” after the NY AG won a $486 million civil fraud judgment against Trump, which is now under appeal.
“U.S. Federal Housing Director William Pulte is the latest administration officer to carry out the all-too-familiar playbook of the President: Praise the judicial system and those who serve it when he wins; criticize it when he loses, and attack those — attorneys and judges, alike — who are doing their jobs to protect and uphold the rule of law,” Lowell told AP.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a statement by Lisa Cook, who says she will not step down from the Federal Reserve and is “gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions” about her mortgages.
