A Trump administration housing official has sent a new criminal referral to the Justice Department against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, as she sues the administration to fight the president’s efforts to fire her.
The new criminal referral, made late Thursday and revealed in a social media post by Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, alleges Cook identified a property in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a second home on official documents, but instead used it as an investment property.
Cook, the first black woman to serve as a Fed governor, has filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s firing of her earlier this week. A hearing on that suit is scheduled for Friday morning.
The battle over Cook’s job is about more than one position, though. The Fed, the nation’s central bank, operates independently, so that officials can make economic decisions without pressure over political considerations. Trump’s attempts to fire Cook – and to force the bank to cut interest rates – get to the heart of the question about the Fed’s independence and whether Trump’s presidential powers have limits.
The Fed has been resistant to cutting rates this year, citing Trump’s tariffs and their potential to raise inflation. Trump, however, has repeatedly demanded lower borrowing costs, often lobbing personal insults in the process.
Many of Trump’s attacks on the Fed had been focused on Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who he appointed during his first term in office, and who was reappointed to another term by President Joe Biden.
Trump has not moved to remove Powell, despite threats that he might do so. Some of those threats have prompted sell-off in US equity markets by investors concerned about Fed independence. It is not clear he has the power to remove Powell except “for cause,” not just because of a disagreement over monetary policy. But Trump used the allegations of mortgage fraud against Cook as justification for her removal.
In the Thursday referral to the DOJ, Pulte described the new allegations as “extremely troubling.”
“Second homes receive lower mortgage costs than investment properties, because investment properties are inherently riskier,” he wrote.
The US Federal Housing Finance Agency had already made a criminal referral alleging that Cook had committed mortgage fraud by getting mortgages for two different properties, one in Michigan, another in Georgia, and claiming on both mortgages that they would be her primary residence.
Cook’s attorney Abbe Lowell did not immediate respond to a request for comment early Friday.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
