President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook “must resign, now!!!”
Trump’s comment came after the director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Pulte, a sharp critic of the Fed, alleged in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that Cook “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud.”
In the letter that Pulte called a “criminal referral,” he said that his agency had obtained her mortgage documents and requested that the Justice Department review the matter.
He further alleged that Cook falsified her “residence statuses for an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based residence and an Atlanta, Georgia-based property.”
Pulte’s letter is the latest scrutiny over the mortgages of prominent Democratic figures, including Sen. Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The letter about Cook’s mortgages ratchets up the administration’s pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. Pulte has posted on social media dozens of times calling on Fed Chair Jerome Powell to resign or lower rates, and he attended Trump’s recent tour of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters renovation.
Cook has a permanent vote on the central bank’s rate-setting committee and was appointed by President Joe Biden to a term running until 2038.
Before joining the Fed, Cook was a professor of economics at Michigan State University. Cook, a graduate of Spelman College and Oxford University, is regarded in the economics field as a trailblazer. She is the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve board in the U.S. central bank’s more than 100-year history.
The Federal Reserve declined to comment on Trump’s post Wednesday. The Justice Department and FHFA did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
