The Justice Department has begun examining mortgage fraud allegations against Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor who is challenging a Trump administration effort to remove her from her job in a move she says is designed to erode the central bank’s independence.
Investigators have issued subpoenas as part of an inquiry into Cook that was spawned by a criminal referral from the country’s top housing regulator.
[...]
“Predictably and recognizing the flaws in challenging their illegal firing of Governor Cook, the administration is scrambling to invent new justifications for its overreach. This Justice Department — perhaps the most politicized in American history — will do whatever President Trump demands,” Cook’s lawyer, Abbe David Lowell, said in a statement.
[...]
Trump moved to fire Cook on Aug. 25 after one of his appointees alleged that she committed mortgage fraud related to two properties she purchased in 2021, before she joined the Fed.
Bill Pulte, who made the criminal referral in his capacity as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has asserted that Cook had claimed two primary residences, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Atlanta, in 2021 to get better mortgage terms. Mortgage rates are often higher on second homes or those purchased to rent.
AP News
Funny how that works.The Trump administration has vowed to go after anyone who got lower mortgage rates by claiming more than one primary residence on their loan papers.
[...]
In a flurry of interviews and rapid-fire posts on X, Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director, has led the charge in accusing Trump opponents of mortgage fraud. “If somebody is claiming two primary residences, that is not appropriate, and we will refer it for criminal investigation,” Pulte said last month.
[...]
A political donor to the president and heir to a housing company fortune, Pulte’s posts online tease big developments and criminal referrals, drawing reposts from Trump himself and promises of swift consequences.
[...]
Trump has used it as a justification to target political foes, including a governor on the Federal Reserve Board, a Democratic U.S. senator and a state attorney general.
Real estate experts say claiming primary residences on different mortgages at the same time is often legal and rarely prosecuted.
But if administration officials continue the campaign, mortgage records show there’s another place they could look: Trump’s own Cabinet.
[...]
ProPublica found that at least three of Trump’s Cabinet members call multiple homes their primary residences on mortgages.
[...]
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer entered into two primary-residence mortgages in quick succession, including for a second home near a country club in Arizona, where she’s known to vacation. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary-residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary-residence mortgage in Long Island and another in Washington, D.C.
[...]
[A] White House spokesperson said: “This is just another hit piece from a left-wing dark money group that constantly attempts to smear President Trump’s incredible Cabinet members. Unlike [Fed Gov.] Lisa ‘Corrupt’ Cook who blatantly and intentionally committed mortgage fraud, Secretary DeRemer, Secretary Duffy, and Administrator Zeldin own multiple residences, and they have followed the law and they are fully compliant with all ethical obligations.”
ProPublica
And who's this toady Trump wants to replace Cook?Cook filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s firing of her, claiming the president violated her due process rights under the Constitution and federal law. The federal government said the firing was justified because the president determined there was sufficient cause, citing unproven allegations of mortgage fraud.
[...]
Cook requested that the court allow her to remain in her job while the litigation moves forward, but in an emergency hearing on August 29, US District Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, asked for more written arguments to be submitted to her this week.
The court’s ruling on whether Cook will keep her job while the high-stakes case plays out is crucial, with a Fed policy meeting coming up on September 16-17. The Fed is widely expected to lower rates for the first time since December.
[...]
Sen. [Elizabeth] Warren called on her Republican colleagues to speak out about the president’s actions, and praised Sen. Thom Tillis for saying that he would not support any nominee to replace Cook until after the legal question of her firing is settled.
“I appreciate that, and that is a good first start,” she told CNN.
“We need Republicans. We need all the people in the Senate to stand up and say we’re not going to grease the skids for Donald Trump’s takeover of the Fed,” Warren said in the hearing.
CNN
Stephen Miran, President Trump’s pick for an open spot at the Federal Reserve, faced backlash on Thursday after revealing that he would only temporarily leave his position as a top economic adviser to Mr. Trump if confirmed as a Fed governor.
Mr. Miran’s comments, made during his confirmation hearing, amplified concerns about his willingness to uphold the longstanding independence of the central bank from political meddling.
[...]
Rather than resign from his position as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Mr. Miran told lawmakers on the powerful Senate Banking Committee that he would take an unpaid leave of absence to fill a term on the Fed’s Board of Governors that is set to expire at the end of January.
NYT
Republicans are willing to let Trump do anything he wants, except control the Fed. Their money is more important than pleasing the Orange God King.Stephen Miran, the White House economist President Donald Trump nominated to the Federal Reserve’s top ranks, just got an earful about the importance of the central bank’s independence — just as the Trump administration actively defends removing Fed Governor Lisa Cook from her post.
[...]
Republican and Democratic senators were unequivocal that the Fed’s decisions on interest rates should remain free of political considerations.
[...]
Democrats questioned Miran’s ability to distance himself from Trump, should he be confirmed to become a Fed governor. Miran said Thursday he plans to technically remain an employee of the White House if he becomes Fed governor on a temporary basis.
CNN
And everybody had a good laugh.Since the beginning of the year, the Fed has been subject to unprecedented attacks by the Trump administration because central bankers haven’t heeded the president’s demands to lower interest rates.
[...]
“You are going to be technically an employee of the President of United States, but an independent member of the board of the Federal Reserve. That’s ridiculous,” Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said.
[...]
Before doing a complete 180 on his views about Fed independence, Miran, a Harvard-trained PhD economist, had challenged it in the recent past.
Last year, Miran co-authored a Manhattan Institute report that called the Fed’s independence an outdated “shibboleth,” and he called for shorter terms for Fed governors to give the president more power to hold sway over the agency.
[...]
Miran said his paper simply laid out proposals to reform the Fed and that “it’s important that we have democratic oversight.”
“I’m very independently minded, as shown by my willingness to stray from consensus and have out-of-consensus views, and I believe that I will continue to be as independent in my thinking process, if confirmed,” Miran said.
Why would he have to be asked? Trump has made it clear that's what he wants.In response to a question posed by Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey, Miran said he hasn’t been asked by Trump or anyone in the administration to vote for lower interest rates if he’s confirmed.
For months, Trump has complained that the Fed not lowering interest rates is forcing the federal government to make massive interest payments on its debt and that it is hurting housing affordability for Americans.
[...]
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the committee’s Democratic ranking member, also criticized Miran for coming “from a highly political role to a non-political role.” At one point, she pressed him to state that Trump lost the 2020 election, which he refused to state outright.
[...]
When Miran’s nomination was announced, Trump said the appointment would last through January, aimed at filling the remainder of former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler’s term, who resigned in early August without citing a reason for her departure. Last week, Trump said he is considering a longer term for Miran.
“We might switch him to the other, it’s a longer term, and pick somebody else,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on August 26, referring to Cook’s term, which is slated to last through 2038 and is currently in litigation. “We’ll have a majority very shortly. So that’ll be great. Once we have a majority, housing is going to swing, and it’s going to be great.”
[...]
According to Fed rules, the chair can be chosen only among current Fed governors; and Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump has attacked for months, has not revealed whether he plans to stay on the Board after his term as chair ends in May 2026. Powell’s term on the Board runs through 2028, so he could theoretically choose to stay as a Fed governor.
[...]
If confirmed, Miran would be in a position to be elevated as Fed chair.
UPDATE 09/06/2025:
UPDATE 09/12/2025: Small detail...
UPDATE 09/17/2025:
And kudos to Lisa Cook for not bending the knee and stepping down.
No comments:
Post a Comment