Bill Pulte has sent a second criminal referral letter this month targeting Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve Board governor, who President Trump announced earlier this week that he was firing for cause. Ā
“As Director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency,” Pulte wrote in anĀ Aug. 28 letterĀ to Special Attorney Edward Martin and Attorney General Pam Bondi, “I reiterate the referral on August 15, 2025, and provide new information concerning a 3rd property for Lisa D. Cook (‘Cook’) and what appears to be multiple false representations to the United States Government by Cook while she was a Governor of the Federal Reserve,” according to Fox Business.
Pulte previously sent a criminal referral letter on Aug. 15. The allegations are that Cook had named two separate properties in 2021 mortgage agreements as her principal residence, one in Michigan and another in Georgia, when only one can be the actual principal residence.Ā
The second criminal referral letter says that in April 2021, Cook signed another mortgage agreement for a condominium in Massachusetts, identifying it as a second home, but later represented to the U.S. government that it was in fact an investment/rental property.Ā
The tax implications of these declarations are what make them problematic, and possibly mortgage fraud by claiming more than one residence as oneās principal residence.
Trump sent a letter to Cook, which he posted on his Truth Social account, stating that “The Federal Reserve Act provides that you may be removed, at my discretion, for cause,” adding, “I have determined that there is sufficient cause to remove you from your position.”
Cook filed a lawsuit Thursday in response to Trumpās letter.Ā
Cookās attorney, Abbe Lowell characterized these actions as a “smear campaign.”Ā
“This is an obvious smear campaign aimed at discrediting Gov. Cook by a political operative who has taken to social media more than 30 times in the last two days and demanded her removal before any review of the facts or evidence,” he said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Nothing in these vague, unsubstantiated allegations has any relevance to Gov Cookās role at the Federal Reserve, and they in no way justify her removal from the Board.”
