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groundloop

(13,269 posts) Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:19 PM Sep 4

US Justice Department opens criminal mortgage fraud probe into Fed Governor Cook

Source: Reuters

The U.S. Justice Department has launched a criminal mortgage fraud probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and has issued grand jury subpoenas out of both Georgia and Michigan, according to documents seen by Reuters and a source familiar with the matter.

The investigation, which followed a criminal referral from Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, is being conducted by Ed Martin, who was tapped by Attorney General Pam Bondi as a special assistant U.S. attorney to assist with mortgage fraud investigations involving public officials, along with the U.S. Attorneys' offices in the Northern District of Georgia and the Eastern District of Michigan, according to the person, who spoke anonymously since the matter is not public.

Pulte, who was appointed by Trump, has accused Cook of committing fraud by listing more than one property as a primary residence when she applied for mortgages, potentially to secure lower interest rates. Cook owns properties in Michigan, Georgia and Massachusetts.

Trump terminated Cook over Pulte's mortgage fraud allegations against her, prompting her to file a lawsuit challenging his effort to oust her.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-justice-department-opens-criminal-mortgage-fraud-probe-into-fed-governor-cook-2025-09-04/

12 replies

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Highlight:

US Justice Department opens criminal mortgage fraud probe into Fed Governor Cook (Original Post) groundloop Sep 4 OP

Racists pieces of shit JustAnotherGen Sep 4 #1

Here we go...... Lovie777 Sep 4 #2

This message was self-deleted by its author 58Sunliner Sep 4 #3

Only old white guys should be on the Fed Reserve board Bayard Sep 4 #4

This message was self-deleted by its author Bayard Sep 4 #5

Pulte was on CNBC covering up his witch hunt Bernardo de La Paz Sep 4 #6

Gee, who's actually weaponizing the DOJ? maxsolomon Sep 4 #7

This is rich coming from the Fraudster-in-Chief Redleg Sep 4 #8

3 of his cabinet have done it muriel_volestrangler Sep 4 #10

Just more WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE MLWR Sep 4 #9

MaddowBlog-Mortgage fraud allegations generate new political headaches for Team Trump LetMyPeopleVote Sep 8 #11

Deadline: Legal Blog-Judge blocks Trump's attempt to fire Lisa Cook from the Fed, but the president is appealing LetMyPeopleVote Wednesday #12

JustAnotherGen

(37,036 posts)

1. Racists pieces of shit

Reply to groundloop (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:23 PM

Sep 4

Anything to take a shot at a Black woman.

They hate our guts - and so I'm going to hate the fuckers a million times back.

Lovie777

(20,205 posts)

2. Here we go......

Reply to groundloop (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:25 PM

Sep 4

making up shit against her.

In my lifetime, this is the worst administration, GQP, President and VP.

Pure evil.

Response to groundloop (Original post)

58Sunliner This message was self-deleted by its author.

Bayard

(26,974 posts)

4. Only old white guys should be on the Fed Reserve board

Reply to groundloop (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:36 PM

Sep 4

Response to groundloop (Original post)

Bayard This message was self-deleted by its author.

Bernardo de La Paz

(58,329 posts)

6. Pulte was on CNBC covering up his witch hunt

Reply to groundloop (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:38 PM

Sep 4

He was asked if his "tip" was internal or external. It's a question where the answer would not affect any ongoing investigation or legal proceedings. Yet he refused to say. That is a pretty clear indication that it was internal and he probably "tipped" himself at the behest of his orangeness. Obviously he would be reluctant to admit to such a blatant example of a witch hunt.

All of it is studiously and carefully oblivious to the felony fraud president tRump committed and was convicted of.

maxsolomon

(37,351 posts)

7. Gee, who's actually weaponizing the DOJ?

Reply to groundloop (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:38 PM

Sep 4

Quelle surprise.

3 years 5 months to go.

Redleg

(6,600 posts)

8. This is rich coming from the Fraudster-in-Chief

Reply to groundloop (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:45 PM

Sep 4

Who was indicted and found guilty of 34 counts of criminal business fraud and who routinely lies about property valuation to improve his chances for getting a loan and to reduce his tax liability. Yet this fucknut still walks the earth as a free man.

muriel_volestrangler

(104,691 posts)

10. 3 of his cabinet have done it

Reply to Redleg (Reply #8)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 04:25 PM

Sep 4

The Trump administration has vowed to go after anyone who got lower mortgage rates by claiming more than one primary residence on their loan papers.

President Donald Trump has used it as a justification to target political foes, including a governor on the Federal Reserve Board, a Democratic U.S. senator and a state attorney general.
...
Underscoring how common the practice is, ProPublica found that at least three of Trump’s Cabinet members call multiple homes their primary residences on mortgages. We discovered the loans while examining financial disclosure forms, county real estate records and publicly available mortgage data provided by Hunterbrook Media.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer entered into two primary-residence mortgages in quick succession, including for a second home near a country club in Arizona, where she’s known to vacation. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary-residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary-residence mortgage in Long Island and another in Washington, D.C., according to loan records.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-cabinet-mortgage-fraud

MLWR

(531 posts)

9. Just more WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE

Reply to groundloop (Original post)

Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:52 PM

Sep 4

from the Krasnov administration. If there were a prize for whoever could waste more time and taxpayer dollars, they's win it, hands down.

LetMyPeopleVote

(169,747 posts)

11. MaddowBlog-Mortgage fraud allegations generate new political headaches for Team Trump

Reply to groundloop (Original post)

Mon Sep 8, 2025, 04:59 PM

Sep 8

Donald Trump urged reporters to start digging into officials’ mortgage records. Two weeks later, he probably wishes he hadn’t offered that advice.

Mortgage fraud allegations generate new political headaches for Team Trump www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
— @jimrissmiller.bsky.social 2025-09-08T18:23:32.648Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/mortgage-fraud-allegations-generate-new-political-headaches-team-trump-rcna229883

But the president’s challenge — perhaps reporters should “go check out the records” themselves — has proven to be interesting advice. ProPublica reported last week, for example:

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer entered into two primary-residence mortgages in quick succession, including for a second home near a country club in Arizona, where she’s known to vacation. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary-residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary-residence mortgage in Long Island and another in Washington, D.C., according to loan records.

A day later, Reuters advanced the broader story in an even more provocative way:

Close relatives of the federal official who has accused a Federal Reserve governor of improperly claiming primary residence on two properties have declared the same status on two homes in two different states, public records show. Mark and Julie Pulte, the father and stepmother of Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, since 2020 have claimed so-called ‘homestead exemptions’ for residences in wealthy neighborhoods in both Michigan and Florida, according to the records.

......That said, immediately after Pulte filed a criminal complaint against Cook with the Justice Department, quite a few observers made the case that the underlying issue is quite common and rarely prosecuted, which necessarily raised questions about selective enforcement and why the administration is going after the president’s perceived foes and not his allies who appear to have done the same thing.,,,,,

The senator added, “Donald Trump has made mortgage fraud accusations his weapon of choice to attack people standing in his way and people standing up to him, like me. ... Should we expect Trump and his enablers at [the Justice Department] to make sensational accusations against and investigate his own Cabinet?”

If recent history is any guide, I think we know the answer to that question.

LetMyPeopleVote

(169,747 posts)

12. Deadline: Legal Blog-Judge blocks Trump's attempt to fire Lisa Cook from the Fed, but the president is appealing

Reply to groundloop (Original post)

Wed Sep 10, 2025, 05:51 PM

Wednesday

The Federal Reserve board member sued over what she called Trump’s “unprecedented and illegal” attempt to remove her.

Judge blocks Trumpâ€™s attempt to fire Lisa Cook from Federal Reserve, but president can appeal...

www.msnbc.com/deadline-whi...
— Fighting Liberal Texas DemðŸŒˆðŸŒŠðŸ’™ðŸ¦‹Congress Switchboard 202-224-3121 (@fightingliberal.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T15:33:02.755Z

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/lisa-cook-restraining-order-trump-federal-reserve-rcna227970

A federal district judge’s ruling late Tuesday keeps Lisa Cook on the Federal Reserve board of governors for now. But it’s probably not the last word in the historic case, which is likely to come from the Supreme Court......

Cobb wrote that Cook had made a “strong showing” that Trump’s attempt to fire her violated federal law, which requires cause for removal. The judge reasoned that the “for cause” requirement in the Federal Reserve Act “does not contemplate removing an individual purely for conduct that occurred before they began in office.” She wrote that the “best reading of the ‘for cause’ provision is that the bases for removal of a member of the Board of Governors are limited to grounds concerning a Governor’s behavior in office and whether they have been faithfully and effectively executing their statutory duties.”

Cobb noted that the case involves “the first purported ‘for cause’ removal of a Board Governor in the Federal Reserve’s 111-year history” and that it “raises important matters of first impression,” meaning issues that haven’t been legally resolved by courts before.

Cook, who has not been officially charged with any fraud, argues that Trump’s claim of wrongdoing against her falls well short of the cause mandated by federal law to remove a board member prematurely. “Without emergency relief,” her lawyers wrote ahead of a hearing Cobb held before she ruled, the government is “now likely to allow an unexpired vacancy to occur for which President Trump has indicated he is ready to fill.”

Cook’s complaint underscores the stakes, noting that the Federal Reserve’s independence “is vital to its ability to make sound economic decisions, free from the political pressures of an election cycle” and warning that if "markets and the public believe that the central bank is making decisions based on political pressure rather than sound economic data, that confidence erodes.”

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