Trump administration lodges allegations of mortgage fraud against Federal Reserve's Lisa Cook

President Donald Trump’s push to take control of the Federal Reserve, and yes, drive down interest rates, took yet another twist Wednesday as he moved to drive out Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.

Trump posted on social media that Cook should “resign, now!!!”

After a day of media frenzy, the Federal Reserve issued a statement after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20, to the Detroit Free Press to be attributed to Cook, who apparently isn’t going to resign just because Trump said she should.

“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 the statement.

“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.”

It’s a saga with all sorts of Michigan connections. Cook — the first Black woman to serve on the Fed board in its 108-year history — joined the Fed in May 2022 after a run as a popular professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University.

Cook is now being accused of mortgage fraud by Pulte, who serves as Trump’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte lived in Florida previous to his nomination to lead the independent agency, but his family has roots in metro Detroit.

Pulte, a well-known philanthropist and head of a private equity firm, also was the founder and chairman of the Detroit Blight Authority, a nonprofit organization that works to stabilize neighborhoods by helping to clear debris and trash around abandoned homes. Known as Bill, he is the grandson of the late William Pulte, who founded Pulte Homes in Detroit in the 1950s.

And finally one home involved in the allegations of mortgage fraud against Cook is in Ann Arbor. One mortgage reportedly was taken out at the University of Michigan Credit Union.

Bill Pulte is all over the X social media platform saying things like: “Mortgage fraud is a serious crime.”

Pulte also posted: “Do not declare two principal residences in President Trump’s America. Mortgage fraud is a serious crime and must be prosecuted as such.”

As for the allegations, we need to examine a letter that Pulte made public on X, what’s called a “criminal referral letter on Lisa Cook.” The letter is on U.S. Federal Housing FHFA letterhead and offers some details of the allegations involving mortgage fraud. No charges have been brought. The agency says it has identified matters that are appropriate to refer to the U.S. Department of Justice for consideration of criminal prosecution.

What’s Pulte saying about alleged mortgage fraud?

The letter on X says it “appears” that Cook has “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute.”

The properties are in Ann Arbor, zip code 48103, and Atlanta, Georgia, zip code 30309.

On June 18, 2021, according to the letter Pulte posted, Cook acquired a 15-year mortgage with the University of Michigan Credit Union for $203,000 plus interest on the Ann Arbor property. The Ann Arbor address is blacked out.

Cook indicated on the mortgage agreement that the property was to be her principal residence within 60 days after the mortgage was executed. And she was to continue to occupy the property for at least one year after the date of occupancy.

The Free Press independently found records for both properties referenced in Pulte’s letter. Property records for the Ann Arbor residence show the home was last sold in 2005. Under a tax portion of the records, there is a section called “Principal Residence Exemption %.” The records show 100% for 2025 and 2024.

Home sales website Zillow also indicates the three-bedroom, 1,800-square foot Ann Arbor home, built in 1924, was briefly listed for rent in 2023 and for sale in 2024 before being pulled from the market.

Atlanta records show a “Lisa D. Cook” purchased a two-bed, two-bath condo in 2021 for $602,000. Fulton County records did not immediately indicate if the purchaser used a principal residence exemption.

Experts suggest that it’s possible the “one year” clause for the Ann Arbor residence would presumably be where she could possibly be accused of “occupancy fraud.”

In general, mortgage rates tend to be lower when you’re borrowing to buy a primary residence instead of a vacation home or rental property.

Cook could face problems because the letter Pulte posted notes that on July 2, 2021, two weeks after the Ann Arbor mortgage was taken out, Cook bought a condominium in Atlanta’s “Above the Four Seasons” building. The letter lists the number of the unit but has blacked out the address of the building.

Was the condo for an investment? The mortgage doesn’t seem to indicate such, based on Pulte’s information.

The letter states that a 30-year mortgage with the Bank Fund Staff Federal Credit Union — which has offices listed on I Street in Washington, D.C. — was obtained for $540,000.

The letter states that the mortgage agreement for the Atlanta property indicated that Cook said the property would be her primary residence within 60 days of the execution of the mortgage agreement.

Did Cook take out two mortgages claiming the same thing? Would she have claimed that both would be a primary residence at roughly the same time? Certainly, that’s what Pulte seems to be claiming here.

The letter posted on X by Pulte also states that the Atlanta condo was listed for rent in September 2022. Cook, according to the letter that Pulte posted, did not disclose any rental income from the Atlanta property tied to that address in her federal government financial disclosures for 2022 and 2023.

More: Fight against Federal Reserve nominee Lisa Cook includes email blasts to MSU professors

More: Michigan State professor nominated to Fed board defends herself against GOP attacks

As of 1 p.m. Aug. 20, it was mostly a “he said” story as neither Cook nor the Fed had issued public comments at that point. Many questions remain unanswered as well about the circumstances involving the mortgages.

The University of Michigan Credit Union also did not respond to requests for a comment from the Detroit Free Press. A person who answered the phone at the Bank Fund Staff Federal Credit Union was not able to transfer the call to anyone Wednesday afternoon.

According to MSU’s news release issued in January 2022, Cook served as a professor in the Department of Economics in MSU’s College of Social Science and a professor of international relations in James Madison College.

Cook has been on unpaid leave from MSU since her appointment as a Fed governor, according to Amber McCann, a university spokesperson.

“Notably, the first Black man to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors was Andrew F. Brimmer who also was an assistant professor at MSU’s Department of Economics from 1958 to 1961,” MSU noted then.

Cook was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the Fed board on Jan. 14, 2022.

Cook’s work included research on how racial inequality has hurt the economy and expertise on racial and gender gaps, which many said would serve an important role for the central bank’s efforts relating to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Cook had previously served as a senior economist in the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Cook took a great deal of heat on the road to making Fed history. Back in February 2022, GOP senators on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs attacked her professional and academic qualifications.

Charges included that she engaged in “extreme left-wing political advocacy” and “promoted conspiracies about Georgia voter laws,” according to the opening statement by U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the committee.

At one point in April 2022, during the confirmation process, the entire economics faculty at Michigan State University received emails that asked for gritty details involving how Cook “struggled to obtain tenure.”

The round of emails was sent in 2022 by the American Accountability Foundation, a 13-month-old conservative opposition research firm that took credit for its role in the undoing of Sarah Bloom Raskin’s nomination to the Fed.

Cook ultimately prevailed with a 51-50 party-line vote. Vice President Kamala Harris cast the decisive vote on May 10, 2022.

Cook took office on May 23, 2022, to fill an unexpired term ending Jan. 31, 2024. She was reappointed to the Fed on Sept. 8, 2023, and sworn in on Sept. 13, 2023, for a term ending Jan. 31, 2038, according to her Fed bio.

Trump has been battling with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. On Aug. 19, according to Reuters, Trump said Powell is “hurting” the housing industry “very badly” and repeated his call for a big cut to U.S. interest rates.

“Could somebody please inform Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell that he is hurting the Housing Industry, very badly? People can’t get a Mortgage because of him. There is no Inflation, and every sign is pointing to a major Rate Cut,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Getting Cook out would give Trump more room to get another Fed governor on the board who agrees with his push to cut rates. The Fed voted at its July meeting to keep rates steady.

Michelle Bowman, Fed vice chair for supervision, and Fed Governor Christopher Waller both indicated at the meeting they wanted a rate cut and preferred to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point. Absent and not voting was Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, who later resigned and stepped down from her position as governor of the Federal Reserve Board, effective Aug. 8.

(This story has been updated to include new information.)

Contact personal finance columnist Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on X @tompor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Federal Reserve’s Lisa Cook, who has MSU ties, pressured to resign