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Legal counsel for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook pushed back sharply on the White House’s latest attempt to remove her from her post, pointing to the president’s own past financial filings on his properties to argue she never committed mortgage fraud.
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s legal counsel accused President Donald Trump and other top administration officials of making the same flaw on mortgage documents as the monetary policymaker targeted for removal.
Abe Lowell, an attorney for Cook, responded sharply to a White House notice of a continued probe into her real estate properties on Wednesday evening, saying the Trump administration is relying on “untried and unproven allegations of criminal wrongdoing.”
In a six-page letter obtained by MS NOW, Lowell wrote that Trump listed two Florida properties as his primary residence in 1993 within seven weeks of purchasing each. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Todd Blanche were also name-dropped in the memo as having listed more than one property as a primary residency, citing reports.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the allegations.
Cook listed an Atlanta, Georgia, condo and Ann Arbor, Michigan, house as her primary properties in separate mortgage agreements, which her lawyer said was “an entirely inadvertent oversight.” The Atlanta-based unit purchased in 2021 was also referred to as a “2nd home” in another document.
“Surely the President does not believe himself ‘unfit for office’ because he signed these contradictory ‘primary’ mortgage documents,” Lowell said.
“In reaching to connect the allegation regarding Governor Cook’s private, pre-office conduct to her actual job, the Letter states that entering two ‘primary’ mortgages ‘calls into question [one’s] competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator.’ Yet as the head of the Department of the Treasury, Secretary Bessent is the ‘chief financial officer of the Government’ and is responsible for ‘managing the U.S. Government’s finances,’” Lowell continued.
“President Trump has neither fired the Secretary nor asked him to resign, seemingly understanding that Secretary Bessent’s actions do not disqualify him or cast doubt on his ‘competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator,’” he said.
A year-old fight between Trump and Cook over mortgage fraud allegations has stretched on despite a Supreme Court ruling in June that established special protections for officials at the central bank from firings by the executive branch. The Fed was founded on a principle of independence to insulate its monetary policy decisions from politics, but Trump has explicitly called for leadership to lower interest rates.
The high court upheld that governors on the Fed’s board can only be removed for cause, which is generally considered to include serious misconduct or negligence of the job. Bill Pulte, an aggressive enforcer of Trump’s wishes and head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, submitted a referral to the Justice Department last year accusing Cook for misstating her primary residence. She has denied the allegations.
Earlier this month, White House Personnel Director Dan Scavino notified Cook that the president was still “considering” removing her from her post, doubling down on the administration’s accusations of mortgage fraud. Cook is the first Black woman to serve on the central bank’s board and was nominated by former President Joe Biden in 2022.
“Governor Cook has never committed mortgage fraud or any intentional wrongdoing, and there is no legally cognizable cause for removing her from the Federal ReserveBoard,” Lowell wrote in his Aug. 26 letter responding to Scavino.
Recent phone calls between Trump and Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh since he took the reins of the bank this summer drew scrutiny as critics rebuke the president’s overtures to influence interest rate decisions. A White House official said that the two have discussed economic issues, including artificial intelligence. Such issues are the subject of new task forces set up by Warsh in recent weeks to rethink how the Fed evaluates the U.S. job market and the health of the economy.
In a joint statement, Lowell and Norm Eisen, another attorney for Cook, said that “these attacks on Governor Cook are not about real estate paperwork; they are an attempt by President Trump to force the Federal Reserve to bend to his will.” The Fed declined to comment.
“Our response should put this matter to rest once and for all,” Cook’s attorneys continued, “but, if necessary and in keeping with the Supreme Court’s ruling, we are prepared to challenge any illegal attempt to remove Governor Cook.”
Akayla Gardner
Akayla Gardner is a White House reporter for MS NOW.
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