Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte expanded his allegations against Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, saying she may have made false representations about a third property she owns.
Pulte, in a letter to the Justice Department posted on X, said Cook bought a Massachusetts-based condo in 2021 and classified it as a second home, but then she listed it as an investment/rental property in filings to the U.S. government in December of that year. Cook was nominated to the Fed board by President Joe Biden in January 2022.
“3 strikes and you’re out,” Pulte said in the post.
The letter adds to the accusations made by Pulte against Cook that she may have committed criminal mortgage fraud by classifying two properties, purchased also in 2021, as her primary residence in loan applications.
U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, who has been tapped by Attorney General Pam Bondi to oversee investigations into mortgage fraud, has confirmed he is looking into Pulte’s original claims.
The charges already led President Donald Trump to announce this week that he was firing Cook from the central bank for cause. She has sued to block that move in a lawsuit that asserts the allegations are false.
A hearing is scheduled for Friday morning in federal court on her motion to stay the dismissal.
The moves against Cook come as Trump has relentlessly pushed the central bank to lower interest rates.
Cook’s lawyer Abbe Lowell responded to the latest charges in a statement.
“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,” Lowell wrote. “Nothing in these vague, unsubstantiated allegations has any relevance to Gov. Cook’s role at the Federal Reserve, and they in no way justify her removal from the Board.”