'3 Strikes And You're Out': Trump Ally Bill Pulte Files Second Criminal Referral Against Fed's Lisa Cook Over 'Misrepresentations' During Her Term

The National Housing Finance Agency (NHFA) Director Bill Pulte has fired his next salvo at Federal Reserve Board member and Governor Lisa Cook late Thursday, giving President Donald Trump one more reason to force her resignation. 

Pulte, a Trump ally, posted a screenshot of his letter to U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi on his account. 

Captioning the post as“3 strikes and you're out,” Pulte said the second criminal referral pertains to a mortgage on a third property and alleged misrepresentations about her properties to the U.S. government during her tenure as Governor of the Fed. The previous criminal referral was regarding mortgage applications filed by Cook before she assumed office at the central bank. 

Elaborating on the second criminal referral, Pulte said Cook entered a 15-year  mortgage for a condominium in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 7, 2021, representing it as her“Second Home”. 

She signed an ethics form from the U.S. government only on Dec. 1, 2021, stating that the property was an“investment/rental property” and not a second home, and repeated this in subsequent filings from 2022 to 2025.

“Representing the property as a second home may have allowed Cook to secure a lower 'Second Home' mortgage down payment and rates, as investment properties typically carry higher down payments and higher rates due to increased risk,” Pulte said. 

Additionally, the FHFA chief said Cook allegedly misrepresented her Atlanta, Georgia, property from 2022 through 2025 to the U.S. Government as her residence, despite evidence suggesting it was being rented out to tenants. 

“Similarly, Cook declared in a 2025 government filing that her Ann Arbor, Michigan, property was her personal residence; however, we have reason to believe that as of 2025, the Ann Arbor property is being used as a rental property, not a personal residence,” he said.

The market has largely shrugged off the developments surrounding the issue. The SPDR S & P 500 ETF (SPY), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the S & P 500 Index, and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) have risen 11.38% and 13.18%, respectively, for the year.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment toward the SPY ETF remained 'bullish' (63/100) by late Thursday, but the message volume dropped to 'low' levels. Sentiment toward QQQ ETF remained 'bearish' and the message volume reduced to 'low' levels had raised concerns about misrepresentations of the Atlanta and Ann Arbor properties in his first criminal referral as well. These inconsistencies indicate Cook made“additional, multiple false representations, including to the U.S. Government, regarding the status of her mortgages and properties,” he added.

Trump made note of the developments and shared a link to a Bloomberg story on his Truth Social account, using the headline of the story as a caption for the post.

On Thursday, Cook sued Trump in a bid to block his move to fire her, claiming that his basis does not amount to a sufficient“cause” to force her out of the Fed. 

In a court filing seeking a temporary restraining order, Cook's lawyers said she“mislabeled a home's purpose on a mortgage application well before her Board appointment without any allegation of its intentionality or materiality would not be the type of 'offense' that would constitute 'cause' for her removal,” according to a Bloomberg report.

U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb will set a hearing date for Friday to discuss Cook's request for the restraining order.

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