DOJ opens probe into Fed board member Cook
By: Aysha Bagchi
USA Today
..... The U.S. Justice Department has reportedly opened a mortgage fraud probe into Lisa Cook, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal reserve, whom President Donald Trump has been trying to fire.
.....
Reuters and The Wall Street journal both reported on the criminal probe. Reuters cited documents it has seen as well as an anonymous source familiar with the probe. The journal cited multiple anonymous sources familiar with the probe.
..... "Predictably and recognizing the flaws in challenging their illegal firing of Governor cook, the administration is scrambling to invent new justifications for its overreach," Abbe David Lowell, a lawyer for Cook, said in a statement.
..... "This Justice Department - perhaps the most politicized in American history - will do whatever President Trump demands. He wants cover, and they are providing it," Lowell said.
..... Ed Martin, a Justice Department official and Trump loyalist, is leading the probe, according to the reports. Martin has been designated by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate potential mortgage fraud by pubic officials. Martin took on that role after failing in his bid to become U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. U.S> Senator Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, decided not to support the nomination due to Martin's support for defendants ion the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Mauryan 6, 2021.
..... In August, [2025] Trump posted on Truth Social that he was firing Cook after determining there was evidence that she had made false statements on mortgage applications.
..... Cook fired back with a federal lawsuit, arguing the president didn't have the power to remove her from office. Her case is pending.
..... In his statement responding to the reported criminal probe, Lowell said he and his client have begun addressing questions about how she described her properties in the pending case and will continue to do so. Those descriptions "are not fraud, but it takes nothing for this DOJ to undertake a new politicized investigation, and they appear to have just done it again," he said.
..... The Justice Department did not immediately respond to USA Today's request for comment.
..... Contributing: Reuters; Bart Jansen, USA Today