Fed’s Lisa Cook Contests ‘Baseless’ Mortgage Fraud Case to Bondi

(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s legal team offered a detailed rebuttal to mortgage fraud allegations made by President Donald Trump and other US officials, arguing in a new letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that the claims “fail on even the most cursory look at the facts.”

Cook’s attorney Abbe Lowell sent a letter on Monday to Bondi and Ed Martin, a senior Justice Department official tapped as a “special attorney” to investigate mortgage fraud, as she presses a legal fight to keep her job. The US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Jan. 21 on Cook’s challenge to Trump’s move to fire her.

Lowell wrote that criminal referrals by a senior administration official were “baseless.”

“The full record makes clear that what he claims to be contradictions in loan applications were not contradictions at all but were cherry-picked, incomplete snippets of the full documents submitted at the time and in subsequent filings by Governor Cook consistent with her applications,” Lowell wrote.

Cook has not been charged to date.

Trump said on Aug. 25 that he had fired Cook “for cause” after she refused his demand to resign over a claim by Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, that she lied on mortgage applications. Cook, in turn, filed a lawsuit against Trump, arguing his attempt to remove her from the Federal Reserve Board was unlawful and violated the central bank’s independence.

The Supreme Court declined to allow Trump to immediately oust Cook, ruling she can remain in her position at least until the justices hear arguments in the case in January.

The ultimate outcome of the legal battle will help determine the extent to which the White House is able to exert control over the Fed as Trump pressures its leaders to significantly cut interest rates.

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