Fed’s Lisa Cook refuses to be ‘bullied’ into quitting amid Trump’s call for resignation over alleged mortgage fraud

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook indicated her intention to stay at the central bank despite calls for her resignation by US President Donald Trump over allegations of mortgage fraud.

“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Bloomberg News quoted Cook, the first Black woman to sit on the Fed Board, in an emailed statement. 

“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,” she added.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte recently asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to probe Cook over two mortgages. Following Bloomberg News’s report of the referral on Tuesday evening, Trump tweeted Wednesday morning, calling for Cook to resign.

On 15 August, Pulte sent a letter to Bondi and Ed Martin, a Justice Department official, indicating that Cook might have committed a crime. The letter claimed that Cook “falsified bank documents and property records to obtain better loan terms, which could constitute mortgage fraud under criminal law.”

No charges have been filed, and it remains unclear if Bondi will initiate an investigation. The Justice Department previously chose not to comment on Pulte’s letter.

Pulte responds

Following Cook’s statement, Pulte posted on social media: “Write anything you or your attorneys want Miss Cook, you’ve been caught based on mortgage documents, not a tweet.”

Apart from Cook, the Trump administration has also targeted high-profile Democrats with mortgage fraud allegations, including California Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom have long-standing political rivalries with Trump.

Pulte, in a CNBC interview on Wednesday, described mortgage fraud as an “existential threat” to the Federal Home Loan Banks under his agency’s oversight.

“We are going to prosecute it,” he said.

“In my experience, it’s unusual to see them do intense loan-level document reviews,” the news agency quoted Ben Klubes, former HUD principal deputy general counsel and acting general counsel under the Biden administration. 

“If this is truly some sort of a routine random review, it’s unusual that the result of that is three Democratic public officials, and that those referrals are publicised in detail,” he added.

Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the leading Democrat on the Senate committee overseeing Pulte, said the Trump administration “should not weaponise the federal government to illegally fire independent Fed Board members.”

“I’ve long been an advocate for holding Fed officials accountable,” the report quoted Warren’s emailed statement. “But anyone can see that for months now, President Trump has been scrambling for a pretext to intimidate or fire Chair Powell and Members of the Federal Reserve Board while blaming anyone but himself for how his failed economic policies are hurting Americans,” she added.

(With inputs from agencies)