Lisa Cook Calls Mortgage Fraud Allegations ‘Unfounded and Untrue’ in Response to White House

A lawyer for Lisa Cook is responding to President Trump’s latest attempt to fire the Federal Reserve governor, maintaining that mortgage fraud allegations leveled by a Trump administration official are “unfounded and untrue.”Ms. Cook’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, sent a letter to the White House counsel, David Warrington, on Wednesday stating “there is no legally cognizable cause for removing her from the Federal Reserve Board.”The letter came in response to a notice of potential removal sent to Ms. Cook on August 5 by the White House deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino. The letter said the president was considering removing Ms. Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and gave her 21 days to respond.Mr. Trump initially tried to fire Ms. Cook last August but Ms. Cook sued, describing the attempt as “illegal and unprecedented.” In June, the Supreme Court, in a five-four decision, blocked Mr. Trump from immediately firing Ms. Cook, saying she had not been given a chance to respond to the mortgage fraud accusations. Mr. Scavino’s letter is part of an effort to carry out the review process.The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s director, William Pulte, first accused Ms. Cook of mortgage fraud, citing documents related to two properties Ms. Cook allegedly claimed as primary residences before she arrived at the Federal Reserve. Mr. Pulte sent two criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.Ms. Cook signed a mortgage agreement for an Atlanta condominium in 2021, designating the property as her primary residence despite living in a Michigan home. Mr. Lowell said that was “an entirely inadvertent oversight” and that her mortgage lender had been aware that the condo was purchased as a vacation property.Mr. Lowell’s letter argued that Mr. Trump should know firsthand that listing two properties as a primary resident does not show intentional wrongdoing or demonstrate unfitness for office, saying the president had done the same thing on two Florida properties when he lived in New York. “Surely the President does not believe himself ‘unfit for office’ because he signed these contradictory ‘primary’ mortgage documents,” Mr. Lowell said.Mr. Lowell also brought up reports that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Todd Blanche have both entered into primary residence mortgages for multiple homes.The letter included an attached declaration from a Suffolk University Law School research professor, Kathleen Engel, who is experienced in mortgage finance and regulation. Her opinion found Mr. Pulte’s evidence was “insufficient to establish that the loans failed to comply with the lender’s requirements, that either lender granted favorable loan terms because of a false statement, or that either transaction involved mortgage fraud.”Ms. Cook has not been charged or convicted in connection with the mortgages. Mr. Lowell has previously stated that the mortgages were fully disclosed to President Biden and the Senate when Ms. Cook was nominated and confirmed for her role at the central bank.Ms. Cook has argued that Mr. Trump is seeking to fire her under a manufactured pretext because “I refused to bow to political pressure and continued to set interest rates based only on what would best serve the American people.”

Lisa Cook Calls Mortgage Fraud Allegations ‘Unfounded and Untrue’ in Response to White House

Lisa Cook Calls Mortgage Fraud Allegations ‘Unfounded and Untrue’ in Response to White House

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