Fed's Cook says she won't be bullied into stepping down

Christopher Condon and Katy O'Donnell, Bloomberg News on Aug 20, 2025

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Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook signaled her intention to remain at the central bank, defying calls for her resignation by 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,” Cook said in an emailed statement via a Fed spokesperson. “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.”

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte recently urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Cook over a pair of mortgages. After Bloomberg News reported the referral Tuesday evening, Trump called for Cook to step down in a social media post Wednesday morning.

Pulte wrote a letter to Bondi and Justice Department official Ed Martin on Aug. 15 suggesting that Cook may have committed a criminal offense. The letter alleged that Cook “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute.”

No charges have been filed, and it’s not clear whether Bondi will investigate. The Justice Department previously declined to comment on Pulte’s letter.

After Cook’s statement was released, 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.”

In an interview later Wednesday with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Pulte said that if Cook doesn’t resign, “I do believe that the president has cause to fire her.”

Trump’s administration has also pursued mortgage fraud allegations against high-profile Democrats, including California Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both are longtime political foes of Trump.

Pulte, in an interview on CNBC Wednesday, characterized mortgage fraud as an “existential threat” to the Federal Home Loan Banks that his agency oversees.

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

But the FHFA singling out individual consumer loans is rare.

“In my experience it’s unusual to see them do intense loan-level document reviews,” said 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 publicized in detail.”

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate committee with oversight of Pulte, said the Trump administration “should not weaponize the federal government to illegally fire independent Fed Board members.”

“I’ve long been an advocate for holding Fed officials accountable,” Warren said, in an 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.”

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