Tuesday on FBN’s “Mornings with Maria,” Federal Housing Finance Agency Director and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac chairman Bill Pulte criticized Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for his failure to seek accountability regarding allegations of mortgage fraud committed by Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
“Mr. Chairman, great to have you this morning,” host Maria Bartiromo said. Thank you so much for being here. Why a second criminal referral?”
“Well, as you know, mortgage fraud is a huge priority of ours,” Pulte replied. “It’s been a huge priority, contrary to what Democrats and everybody wants to say since March, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, if you commit mortgage fraud in this country, we’re going to come after you. In the case of Ms. Cook, it appears that she has committed blatant mortgage fraud, and we can’t be having somebody like that in the Federal Reserve. So, it will be up to the DoJ, what they end up doing here. But things do not look very good for Ms. Cook.
“Well, I mean, she is denying it, William,” Bariromo said. “What do you want to say to her, since she is denying it and she is actually suing President Trump?”
Pulte responded, “I don’t know if she is denying and that’s what’s very concerning, right? These documents are authentic. These documents match. People have to take responsibility for their actions. She is not coming out, to your point, in denying it. Instead, she is doing double speak with her attorneys and trying to play all kinds of games and attack us as the investigators. Look, we’re impartial. We are the housing agency. We are focused on prosecuting mortgage fraud. If we see it, we have an obligation to do something about it, and we’re not going to be deterred by politicians or criminal subjects, defense attorneys.”
“Actually, you make a great point, because even when the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was with me last week, he said one thing we’re not hearing is, I didn’t do it,” Bartiromo said.
Pulte added, “That’s correct, and that’s what’s very concerning. Instead, they’re choosing to attack me and attack other great Americans who are just trying to protect the integrity of the market. But, look, President Trump is focused on getting this housing market booming again. The last four months — the last four years, rather, has been terrible. Joe Biden and Jerome Powell did something terrible with interest rates. And I’ll say one thing, which is that people talk about the independence of the Fed. The Fed has not been independent for the last four years, and you see that with Jerome Powell not holding Lisa Cook accountable. I mean, this is clearly and what appears to be blatant mortgage fraud, and Jerome Powell is silent. If anything, he is showing the lack of independence of the Fed, and it’s by his own doing. So, we couldn’t get a new chairman soon enough, and hopefully that will solve a lot of these issues.”
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