Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook attends the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s 2025 Jackson Hole financial symposium, “Labor Markets in Transition: Demographics, Productivity, and Macroeconomic Policy” in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, U.S., August 23, 2025.
Jim Urquhart | Reuters
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte on Thursday evening stated that he had filed a second criminal referral with the Department of Justice towards Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, whom President Donald Trump is trying to fire.
Pulte stated in a post on X that the brand new referral pertains to her mortgage for a condominium in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and alleged misrepresentations about that apartment and two houses she owns in authorities ethics filings throughout her time as a Fed governor.
“3 strikes and you’re out,” Pulte tweeted about his referral to the DOJ.
His publish included photographs of his letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and prime DOJ official Ed Martin, laying out the allegations about Cook.
The referral implicitly addresses arguments that Trump doesn’t have the facility to legally take away Cook from the board for trigger as a result of Pulte’s first criminal referral pertains to conduct that allegedly occurred earlier than she joined the Fed.
Earlier Thursday, Cook sued Trump, asking a federal decide in Washington, D.C., to dam the president from his unprecedented transfer as well her from the central financial institution.
CNBC has requested remark from a spokeswoman for Cook’s lawyer and the Fed about Pulte’s new criminal referral.
Trump earlier within the week cited the primary criminal referral Pulte made towards Cook, which associated to purported false claims on mortgage functions for 2 houses, in a letter notifying her that he was firing her.
Pulte, who was appointed to steer the FHFA by Trump, has acted as an assault canine on the president’s behalf towards the Fed, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, and Cook in current weeks.
Bill Pulte, nominated to be the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, testifies throughout a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee affirmation listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 27, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters
Trump for months has demanded, with out success to date, that the central financial institution minimize rates of interest. Before saying he was firing Cook, Trump had severely thought of attempting to fireplace Powell.
Pulte beforehand stated that Cook signed mortgage paperwork for properties in Michigan and Georgia, which she claimed had been every her major residence, “in order to potentially secure lower interest rates and more favorable loan terms.”
His earlier allegation led the DOJ to open a criminal investigation of Cook, the primary Black girl to function a Fed governor.
Pulte on Thursday stated that in April 2021, “Cook entered a 15-year mortgage for a condominium in [Cambridge], representing it as her ‘Second Home.’ “
“Only eight months later, on December 1, 2021, Cook signed an ethics form with the U.S. Government that this property was an ‘investment/rental property,’ ” Pulte wrote.
But “in subsequent filings from 2022 to 2025, Cook consistently listed this property as an investment/rental property, not a second home,” he wrote.
“Representing the property as a second home may have allowed Cook to secure a lower ‘Second Home’ mortgage down payment and rates, as investment properties typically carry higher down payments and higher rates due to increased risk,” Pulte wrote.
He stated that Cook allegedly misrepresented her property in Atlanta, which was a topic of the primary criminal referral, on disclosure types from 2022 by means of 2025 “as her residence, despite evidence suggesting it was being rented out to tenants.”
“Similarly, Cook declared in a 2025 government filing that her Ann Arbor, [Michigan] property was her personal residence, however, we have reason to believe that as of 2025, the Ann Arbor property is being used as a rental property, not a personal residence,” Pulte tweeted.
“These inconsistencies appear Cook made additional, multiple false representations, including to the U.S. Government, regarding the status of her mortgages and properties.”