Pulte said in a letter to attorney general Pam Bondi and justice department official Ed Martin that Cook committed mortgage fraud by listing two separate properties as her primary residence at the same time. On Thursday, the justice department said it would investigate Cook.
Democrats including Senator Elizabeth Warren have criticized the move as a political one aimed at removing Cook from the Fed’s decision-making board and giving Trump the option to install a replacement whose views on rate policy match his own.
Cook sided with Fed chair Jerome Powell in last month’s decision to hold rates steady. Two governors, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, voted in favour of a 25-basis-point cut.
Adriana Kugler, another board member, unexpectedly resigned her seat at the beginning of August, allowing Trump to replace her with chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, Stephen Miran.
In a statement this week, Cook dismissed the idea of quitting. “I learned from the media that FHFA Director William Pulte posted on social media that he was making a criminal referral based on a mortgage application from four years ago, before I joined the Federal Reserve,” she said.