Trump Fires Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook Over Mortgage Fraud Allegations
“the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator.”
President Donald Trump fired Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook due to her allegedly committing mortgage fraud.
Trump cited a criminal referral from August 15, where William J. Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, told Attorney General Pam Bondi he had “sufficient reason to believe” Cook made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements.
“For example, as detailed in the Criminal Referral, you signed one document attesting that a property in Michigan would be your primary residence for the next year,” wrote Trump. “Two weeks later, you signed another document for a property in Georgia stating that it would be your primary residence for the next year.”
Last week, Bondi said the DOJ would look into the allegations, placing U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin in charge of the investigation.
Trump explained that Cook could stay on the board of governors because “the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator.”
🚨 President Donald J. Trump relieves Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook of her position pic.twitter.com/tJV8m4mlHW
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 26, 2025
How about we just END THE FED?!
Trump claimed that Article II and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 grant him the privilege to make the move.
CNBC thinks Cook’s firing will end up at the Supreme Court:
Trump’s move pushes the Federal Reserve into unchartered territory and will likely lead to a legal clash that could wind up at the Supreme Court.
Congress curbed the president’s authority to unilaterally fire a Fed governor in the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which states that president can only do so “for cause.” While the law does not elaborate on what constitutes “cause,” it has historically been understood to mean serious concerns about an official’s ability to continue serving.
Yeah…I think mortgage fraud allegations fall under “for cause.”
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has seven members, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They serve 14-year terms.
Former President Joe Biden appointed Cook in 2022.
The board “regulates banks, contributes to the nation’s monetary policy, and oversees the activities of Reserve Banks.”
[Featured image via Federal Reserve]
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Comments
Personally, I think this was a (minor) mistake. The DOJ Indictment should come first, then the firing.
In the real world, people get fired all the time for bad behavior without ever being indicted for a crime. Why should government bureaucrats be exempt from standard employment practices? That Congress has established an extra-Constitutional organization that operates with employment guidelines that FAR exceed what are enjoyed by the average American flies in the face of a ‘Republican form of Government.’
It’s a more serious issue than the one that saw Trump facing a half-billion dollar fine.
You can’t normally file two different residences as both being your “primary residence” simultaneously to get the benefits there of twice – and just wave it off as a “minor mistake”.
If you voluntarily re-filed yourself to correct the discrepancy perhaps you could make that argument. She didn’t.
Unlike the faux fraud indictment AG James filed against Trump one or the other loaner suffered actual financial loss and Ms. Cook received actual financial gain from the discrepancy.
Furthermore the paperwork Ms. Cook submitted was – to quote – her “attesting” (ie promising) to perform an action (reside there 6+ months of the year). She obviously defaulted on at least one such promise.
Whereas the paperwork Trump submitted to get a loan for his property had minor factual errors (exact size of a room for example) the big “error” (worth of the property) was not his to determine and was not “testimony” or a promise as such. And given how real estate worth and loans actually work not even an “error” OR legally a lie.
I’m sure some lower level Biden/Obama judge somewhere will issue a knee-jerk court order trying to negate this firing.
And legally he/she will have no valid basis for it.
But it is what it is – for now.
Unlike Letitia James’s indictment of Trump for “fraud” one or the other bank she got her mortgage thru suffered real financial loss
Normally? How about never. You have a primary residence for purposes of not only mortgage loans but also for Federal Office in some cases like Congress and also for state tax purposes. A Primary Residence is also called a “Homestead” in quite a number of places and is defined as the persons primary residence which must be inhabited for 180 plus 1 days to establish residency. You can’t have 2 of them.
BobM, LeftWingLock didn’t say Cook had made a minor mistake, s/he said Trump had made one, by not waiting for an indictment before firing her. I disagree, but that’s what this thread is about.
Well, Lisa Gates does not get to enjoy the new palace being built for the Fed.
Perhaps Obama will let her stay at his palatial presidential facility being built in Chicago.
her commitment as well las the feds, to the agenda of DEI is reason enough to dismantle this racist agenda that they push
their goal of redistribution of wealth hasnt changed but eliminating the players is a start
It’s not a “minor mistake” to commit mortgage fraud and her celebrity lawyer actually saying as a defense that the mortgage forms are complicated is farcical. She should know about, IDK, economics and filling out forms if she is going to sit on the Feds or be smart enough to have a lawyer look everything over before signing. Heck, most everyone has a lawyer involved in real estate dealings. I do agree that removing her before the full investigation is not the correct move. She should step aside, temporarily, until this plays out.
It does raise the question of whether the Legislative Branch can pass a law which infringes on Executive Power and that is what is going to get this to SCOTUS. Is the Reserve Act even Constitutional in the first place? I don’t think it is because if the Legislative Branch can pass any laws binding the Presidents Constitutional Authority then they are setting up a neutered Presidency that means nothing
diver64, LeftWingLock didn’t say Cook had made a minor mistake, s/he said Trump had made one, by not waiting for an indictment before firing her. I disagree, but that’s what this thread is about.
But she is a genius BLACK lady with a doctorate in economics. Home economics?
hey now…. those of us who actually WORK in Home Economics (aka housewife/SAHM) know better than this. We know how to balance our finances AND stay within the law.
Even if other person like mortgage broker completed the forms for her, she would still be responsible for reviewing them before signing.
Looks bad for Fed.
“ Trump explained that Cook could stay on the board of governors because…”
COULD stay?
Must be an error. Because she gone. Waiting for You Tube video of feds dragging her feet first out of her office.
I’m guessing this will end up at the SC as well which probably won’t take it thus leaving matters to a lower court which will probably stay any removal until after Powell’s term ends in May.
Hell, everything Trump does ends up at the Supreme Court.
I’m a retired Federal System HR guy, and while the parallel may be tenuous I can say in my world personnel actions for misconduct need not wait for court conviction or even charges if relevant official is satisfied of the truth of the matter behind the decision to terminate.
It’s another example of where the courts may not substitute their opinion or judgement for that of the executive.
Hell, everything Trump does ends up at the Supreme Court.
Not everything. There was some minor matter that was reputed to have happened once that did not end up at the Supreme Court, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was.
There was that time he hogged all the ice cream at an Official Dinner.
My job also has policies that not-quite-the-same. Every quarter, the security office releases a report on the number of people disciplined for bad behavior. A lot of it is breaking the law. Drug offenses, mostly. Some financial fraud. But there is a lot of discipline for stuff that is not illegal. Alcohol abuse. Prostitution in countries where it is legal. Repeated sexually explicit humor in the workplace. It’s prosecuted when warranted, but a lot of the time the person is just fired because they aren’t trustworthy. And that trust is necessary for the position.
I guess that depends on whether a district judge decides he alone gets to determine who Trump can remove 🤔
What has Powell’s term got to do with anything? Why would it affect this?
“How about we just END THE FED?!” Because gold is crap.
Money is not wealth. It is a ticket in line to say what the economy does next, presumably something for you.
If there are too many tickets outstanding for what the economy can do at once, the tickets bid up prices against each other, and prices rise.
If there are too few tickets outstanding for what the economy can do at once, pieces of the economy go idle for want of able buyers.
The Federal Reserve regulates the number of tickets by creating or destroying them, so that the number of tickets is matched to the capabilities of the economy.
The Fed meets every month or so and decides whether there are too many or too few tickets out there.
If there are too many, it sells Treasury debt for dollars, and burns the dollars.
If there are too few, it prints new dollars and uses them to buy back Treasury debt.
It is not creating or destroying wealth when it does this. It’s just putting out or taking back tickets.
Clever detail:
The way the Fed controls its intervention is through the interest rate target.
The interest rate is an output from the economy. The Fed uses it to regulate itself.
The Fed, if it wants to destroy dollars, moves its target interest rate up a tiny bit. Then, for a month or so, it sells debt when the interest rate below its target, and buys debt when its interest rate is above its target.
The result is slightly fewer dollars out there relative to what the economy is capable of doing than before.
The market is producing the interest rate, not the Fed. The Fed just sets the target.
To increase the number of dollars, the Fed lowers the target instead of raising it.
‘Gold is crap’…if so then it is very expensive crap currently valued by the free market at $3,334 per ounce. Whatever its faults with physical gold there isn’t any counter party risk or custodial risk and it is recognized, valued and accepted worldwide.
I was listening to Vivi Fri And he said that she started renting out the Atlanta property one month after she bought it that property she said was gonna be her primary residence this primary residence and the one in Ann Arbor were both bought like within six months of each other or something like that
Correct. Her problem is she unambiguously violated federal law, a violation that carries a CRIMINAL penalty. You’ll notice that her supporters on the Fed who have commented on the story haven’t denied she did what has been alleged. Instead, they’ve said, ‘the paperwork is confusing.’ So, the best case scenario is the person who’s a Fed Governor is ‘confused’ by a mortgage loan application. That alone is disqualifying.
I’ve bought and sold several properties in different states and own more than one building in different states right now. I don’t have a PhD in Economics and do not sit on the Fed but even I know you can have only one primary residence. A states IRS gets fairly disturbed if you try to claim more than one at a time to lower either interest rates or property taxes.
Sounds like calculated pattern of behavior, not fill in the blank error. She needs to be replaced.
I’d like to see the actual paperwork, and whether it was corrected.
I doubt this will end up at the Supreme Court; If indeed she lied on the paperwork the appeals court will uphold the firing and skate the underlying issue (the extent of the Presidents removal power). This is not the test case anyone wants–whether the President can fire Fed governors without cause.
The Supreme Court (5+ justices) have signaled he may not be able to fire fed governors “at will” — there is a long history of public/private arrangements in banking going back to the First Bank of the United States (signed into law by President Washington). It was all Hamiltons idea (opposed by Jefferson and Madison), The constitutionality of this arrangement was settled (see also, McCulloch v. Maryland 1819).
Debates about banking and the constitutionality of national banks are as old as the constitution itself and the Bank of England. There is nothing new in this debate that has not been said over the last 235 years. “end the fed” is just wishful thinking.
And President Jackson? That didn’t happen?
The second bank of the US’s charter was not renewed because the house and senate did not have enough votes to overcome Jackson’s veto of the legislation to renew the charter. It had nothing to do with the constitutionality of the statue, which was well settled by then.
There is a GIANT chasm between ‘Congress has the power to create a national bank’ and ‘Congress has the power to create an agency that is separate and distinct from the Executive’s authority.’ McCulloch doesn’t come remotely close to establishing the second statement even though it establishes the precedent of the first statement.
We have three branches of government and ONLY three branches of government. Congress has no authority to create an extra-Constitutional 4th branch of government.
The issue is even more complicated than those two binary results. Congress has sole authority over “coining money” taxes and spending (which in 1791 were the sole components of monetary policy). Congress could create a private-public bank that for example executed monetary policy based on rules congress legislated (e.g. Federal Reserve Reform Act of 1977 – full employment and price stability). I don’t think that the executive has any power here, except to veto legislation.
The Federal Reserve as currently organized *also* regulates banks, which is the domain of the executive. So on that, normally I’d say the president (via the Treasury probably) has some power to appoint and fire executive overseeing regulatory functions at will– and these two functions of the Federal Reserve should be split. Regulatory functions go to Treasury/OCC and monetary policy to congress.
But the Supreme Court recently telegraphed their reluctance to step into this, noting the long history with the first and second bank. If/when this goes to the Roberts Court we are like to get a Roberts Blue Plate SPecial that both confuses everyone and makes everyone unhappy at the same time.
Right. Congress has the sole authority over ‘coining money.’ So, it passed enabling legislation for the US Mint. But, the US Mint is part of the Department of the Treasury. It’s not it’s own thing, operating independently of the Executive’s Authority…and neither should the Federal Reserve.
Hang on let’s step back several steps for some basic clarity before we start unnecessary Philadelphia Lawyering. There are three branches of the Federal Government under our Constitution. Any Federal entity must fall within one of the three branches. I have heard zero arguments that the Federal Reserve falls within either the Legislative or Judicial Branches. That means it must be part of the Executive Branch and that means the POTUS is the HMFIC of the Federal Reserve just as he is for every other Executive Branch Dept, Agency, Board, Commission or other entity not falling within the Legislative or Judicial Branches. See Art II ‘The Executive power shall be vested in a President of the USA’.
This is one of the arguments against Chief Fauxcahontas’s baby, The CFPB. Creating an “independent” arm of the government that is beholden to no one appears nowhere in the Constitution as part of the Congress Authority.
Close the Fed? Duh!
Why didn’t you think of that?
😉
I’m dubious the fed governors are not doing insider trading.
I had a dream….
and it came true
bye bye mss racism
Have The Usual Suspects rolled out racism and sexism yet?
She is a crone “of color;” she can do no wrong.
Just as the vile and stupid Jonathan Capeheart dutifully performed like a trained seal to advance a manifestly stupid and slanderous narrative at the Dhimmi-crats’ recent confab, addressing sundry Dhimmi-crat heirs-apparent seated on stage:
Capeheart: “How many of you think that Kamala Harris lost because of racism and sexism?
[all seated Dhimmi-crat leaders on stage dutifully raise their hands in affirmation]
Capeheart [laughing]: “Good; you all passed.”
Crone-harlot-dunce, Kamuluh, lost the election because she was a transparently shrill, unlikable, mendacious and dim-witted twit, promoting manifestly failed and unpopular policies. Yet, the Dhimmi-crat media lackeys prefer to blame the American populace, by hurling utterly vile, false and malicious slanders regarding alleged racism and sexism.
crone of color lol
Yes. Hakeem – Tumu Obama – Jeffries has already pointed out in the first paragraph of his statement that she’s ‘the first black….’
She did and her lawyer alluded to it. So did Hakeem “Temu Obama” Jefferies.
the fed was the lefts way of BOTH controlling the banks …money flow..and not having the ignorant populace blame the pols
when the facts are the market controls what the rates are by supply and demand of goods and services
the fed especially with its new agenda of redistributing wealth based on “racial inequities” just proves how dangerous it is to allow the government ( trump included) from going outside their lanes
adding the fed to the treasury is like allowing the courts to legislate
we see how that is a danger to the republic
cooks defenders will say
she didnt lie
she had to say what she said on the mortgage app b/c racism has boxed her out of living wherever she da mn well pleases
Dhimmi-crat hustlers — especially those “of color” — have been getting away with their fraud/grift/racketeering schemes for so long, unmolested by law enforcement and prosecution, that accountability is an alien concept to them.
now they ‘ll find an auto penned pardon from fjb for lisa cook
right next to a bag of columbian snow
Oh, come on!
It’s just mortgage fraud. Everybody’s doin’ it!
Cook is asserting that the President has no authority to remove her and that she will not resign.
“President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so,” Cook said in a statement. “I will not resign.”
Nice try, but fail. 12 U.S.C. 242, which Trump cites in his letter, expressly provides that a Fed member can be “removed for cause by the President.”
Sorry, Lisa, you’re not being asked to resign. You’re fired.
she wants to be dragged out so her cred will appear to the rest of her blmplo army
I think her and her lawyers argument is that since she hasn’t been convicted or even charged with a crime yet, there is no establishment of cause. I actually buy that one. If and when she is charged then we are talking about something but I think Trump jumped the gun on this one.
There does not appear to be any serious dispute that Cook signed two mortgage applications just two weeks apart and that they contain material and irreconcilable representations about her primary residence.
So an alleged federal financial fraudfeasor should be permitted to hold one of the highest federal financial positions at least criminal charges are filed? That strikes me as a rather breathtaking proposition.
Like Pres. Trump said she’s either incompetent or deceitful both of which are cause in my opinion.
Meh. It’s a question of discretion and timing in use of his authority. Voters can take up the issue and demonstrate their displeasure at the next election by removing GoP majorities in HoR and Senate or even in ’28 by rejecting his VP should Vance run or his Sec State if Rubio decides to run. The electorate of ‘We the People’ holds the ultimate check and balance though it definitely lags events.
Bout time. Now balance budget. End fed. Defund atf. Fund the War Department
DEI DEI DEI!!! Say it with me now!!! DIE DIE DIEEEEEE!
s/could/couldn’t
Given the way Kamala and KJB were selected, I really feel like I need to ask….is this woman even qualified for the position in the first place?