The governor of the Federal Reserve, Lisa Cook, declared in financial forms that her Atlanta property would be used as a “holiday house” and not as her main residence, according to documents obtained by NBC News that seem to undermine the accusations of mortgage fraud by the Trump administration.
The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Ablicte, and President Donald Trump, who moved to Fire Cook, accused the member of the Central Bank Board of passing the property as its main residence to obtain financial profits. Cook has repeatedly denied the accusation, and administration officials have not provided definitive evidence supporting their claims.
A summary of the loan of the Federal Cooperative of Banking Personnel in May 2021 says: “Use of property: holiday house”. In addition, public records in Fulton County, Georgia, reviewed by NBC News show that Cook sought tax exemptions available for primary residence.
A second document obtained by NBC News, the “National Security Posts” questionnaire, which was presented to the Biden Administration at the end of 2021 and then to the Senate, lists a question that says: “List all its interests in real estate, including additional houses, homes, rental properties and interests in trusts that may have goods.”
Cook responded by writing “2nd house” followed by the Directorate of Property of Atlanta.
The FHFA and the White House did not respond to comments requests on Friday night on the documents, which Reuters first reported.
Cook’s legal team declined to comment.
Antlet, in a criminal reference to the attorney general Pam Bondi last month, wrote that “it seems that a person, Mrs. Lisa Denell Cook, has falsified bank documents and properties records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially mortgage fraud under the criminal statue.
Trump then announced in Truth Social that he was eliminating Cook from his role in the Central Bank, the first time a president tried to fire a Fed official.
On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Cook’s termination. The Trump administration appealed two days later and is looking for a ruling before the Fed interest configuration committee begins its next meeting, on Tuesday. Cook has a permanent vote about that committee.
Antlet has also said in recent interviews and in the publications on the social networks that Cook “made misrepresentations about his mortgages to the federal government when he was governor.”
The Cook National Security Questionnaire appeared before the Biden Administration in December 2021. Cook joined the Fed after being confirmed by the Senate in May 2022.
In a presentation of the recent court, Cook’s lawyers wrote that “Mortgage Fraud never committed.”
The Federal Reserve has said that it would comply with the result of the current legal case of Cook.
