The investigation follows a lawsuit filed by Cook, who challenges Trump to fire her from the central bank over mortgage fraud allegations.
Released on September 4th, 2025
The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal mortgage fraud investigation into US Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
The Justice Department has also issued subpoenas for the Great Ju Court from both Georgia and Michigan, Reuters reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
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The investigation is being conducted by Ed Martin following a criminal introduction from Bill Prute, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Ed Martin was taken away by Attorney General Pam Bondi as a special US lawyer to assist in mortgage fraud investigations involving civil servants, along with the US lawyers’ offices for the Northern District of Georgia and the US lawyers’ offices for the Liatorel area of Michigan.
Pulte, appointed by US President Donald Trump, accused Cook of committing fraud by listing multiple properties as major residences when applying for a mortgage to secure a lower interest rate. Cook owns properties in Michigan, Georgia and Massachusetts.
Trump has urged her to end Cook over Pulte’s mortgage fraud allegations against her and file a lawsuit challenging her efforts to get rid of her.
Cook’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, a well-known Washington lawyer, said the Justice Department is in a hurry to invent a new justification for Trump’s overreach in firing the Fed governor.
“He wants cover and they provide it. Questions about how Governor Cook sometimes explained her property, we started working on pending cases and it’s not a scam to continue doing that, but this DOJ needs nothing to do with the new politicized investigation and they did it again,” Lowell said.
The case, which is likely to end before the U.S. Supreme Court, has affected the Fed’s ability to set interest rate policies regardless of politicians’ wishes, and is widely considered important to the central bank’s ability to manage inflation.
Trump has called for the US Central Bank to immediately and aggressively lower interest rates and denounced Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for monetary policy stewardship.
In one of the most recent legal applications challenging Trump’s actions, Cook said he listed mortgages in three properties filed with the White House and the US Senate in the review process for his appointment to the Fed in 2022.
Cook is the third civil servant to target a criminal investigation over allegations of mortgage fraud.
Martin, who also chairs the “Armise Working Group” and serves as a pardon lawyer, pursues crime research from Democrats U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Leticia “Tish” James. In these two cases, the Great Juju judge, which began before Martin, is also convened.
