A second criminal referral was filed against Lisa Cook on Thursday, alleging the embattled Federal Reserve Board governor may have made “misrepresentations” on mortgage documents and government disclosures.
The complaint to the Justice Department was lodged by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who was the source of the initial criminal referral that President Trump is using to attempt to fire Cook “for cause.”
“3 strikes and you’re out. Today, US Federal Housing sent a 2nd Criminal Referral in the matter of Lisa D. Cook, related to a mortgage on a 3rd property and alleged misrepresentations about her properties to the United States Government during her time as Governor of the Federal Reserve,” Pulte wrote on X, including a copy of the letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Pulte discovered that in April 2021, Cook entered a 15-year mortgage for a condominium in Cambridge, Mass., for $361,000, and attested to the lender that the property would serve as a “second home.”
Eight months later, Cook signed a government ethics form and disclosed that the Cambridge property was being used as an “investment/rental property,” according to the Trump administration official.
In four subsequent disclosures, between 2022 and 2025, Cook continued to list her condo as a rental property and not as her “second home.”
“Second homes receive lower mortgage costs than investment properties, because investment properties are inherently riskier,” Pulte noted in his complaint.
“This is extremely troubling because, in addition to other reasons, by potentially falsely representing the property as a second home, Cook may have received savings by not declaring it as an investment property.”
The housing director also found that Cook listed a property in Atlanta as her “personal residence” on government documents from 2022 to 2025, despite evidence suggesting it was being rented out to tenants.”
Similarly, Pulte informed the DOJ that the Federal Housing Finance Agency “has reason to believe” that an Ann Arbor, Mich., property owned by Cook and listed on mortgage documents and on her government disclosures as a personal residence “is being used as a rental property.”
Pulte asked the DOJ to investigate whether Cook “made further potential criminal violations as well as material misrepresentations to the United States Senate and the United States Government in order to, amongst other things, acquire and retain her position as Governor.”
Cook’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Earlier this month, the FHFA director accused Cook, an academic who served on former President Barack Obama’s White House Council of Economic Advisers and former President Joe Biden’s transition team, of falsifying bank documents and property records to secure better loan terms.
Pulte alleged that the Biden-era Fed appointee listed a condo in Atlanta as her primary residence in July 2021 — just two weeks after she obtained a loan on her Michigan home, which she also declared as a primary residence.
Trump announced that he was firing Cook on Monday.
The Fed governor responded by suing the president on Thursday, arguing that Trump’s action was illegal and suggesting that she accidentally “mislabeled” one of her homes as a primary residence on a mortgage application four years ago.
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