WASHINGTON—The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal mortgage fraud investigation into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, issuing grand jury subpoenas in Georgia and Michigan, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and a source familiar with the matter.
The probe follows a referral from Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte and is being led by Ed Martin, a special assistant U.S. attorney appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to handle mortgage fraud cases involving public officials. The U.S. Attorneys’ offices in the Northern District of Georgia and Eastern District of Michigan are also involved, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is not public, Reuters said.
Pulte, a Trump appointee, has alleged that Cook listed multiple properties as her primary residence when applying for mortgages, potentially to secure lower interest rates. She owns homes in Michigan, Georgia, and Massachusetts.
As CUToday.info reported, those two loans were issued by credit unions—one from University of Michigan Credit Union and another from Bank Fund Credit Union.
Trump dismissed Cook citing Pulte’s allegations, a move that led her to sue in an effort to block his attempt to remove her. Her attorney, prominent Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell, argued the Justice Department is “scrambling to concoct new justifications” for what he called Trump’s unlawful overreach, Reuters noted.
"He wants cover, and they are providing it. The questions over how Governor Cook described her properties from time to time, which we have started to address in the pending case and will continue to do so, are not fraud, but it takes nothing for this DOJ to undertake a new politicized investigation, and they appear to have just done it again," Lowell said.