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Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook stated in her financial disclosures that her property in Atlanta was intended to be a “vacation home” and not her primary home, according to documents reviewed by NBC News, possibly undermining fraud allegations made by the Trump administration.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte and President Donald Trump, who has aimed to dismiss Cook, have accused the Federal Reserve board member of misrepresenting the property as her primary residence for personal financial benefit. Cook has consistently refuted the accusation, and officials from the administration have not presented conclusive proof to support their allegations.
A loan summary from the Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union dated May 2021 states: “Property Use: Vacation Home.” Additionally, public records from Fulton County, Georgia, accessed by NBC News reveal that Cook did not apply for tax breaks typically given to primary residences.
Another NBC News-discovered document, Cook’s “questionnaire for national security positions,” provided to the Biden administration in late 2021 and subsequently to the Senate, includes a question prompting: “Please list all of your interests in real property, including additional homes, vacation homes, rental properties, and interests in trusts that may hold property.”
Cook responded by writing “2nd home” followed by the address of the Atlanta property.
The FHFA and the White House did not respond to requests for comment Friday evening on the documents, which were first reported by Reuters.
Cook’s legal team declined to comment.
Pulte, in a criminal referral last month to Attorney General Pam Bondi, claimed that “it seems an individual, Ms. Lisa DeNell Cook, has falsified bank documents and property records to obtain more favorable loan conditions, potentially engaging in mortgage fraud under the criminal statute. This has involved misrepresenting residence statuses for a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a property in Atlanta, Georgia…”
Subsequently, Trump announced on Truth Social that he intended to remove Cook from her position at the central bank, marking the first instance a president has sought to dismiss a high-ranking Fed official.
On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Cook’s termination. The Trump administration appealed two days later and is seeking a ruling before the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee begins its next meeting, on Tuesday. Cook has a permanent vote on that committee.
Pulte has also said in recent interviews and in social media postings that Cook “made misrepresentations about her mortgages to the Federal Government when she was a Governor.”
Cook’s national security questionnaire was filed with the Biden administration in December 2021. Cook joined the Fed after being confirmed by the Senate in May 2022.
In a recent court filing, Cook’s lawyers wrote that she “did not ever commit mortgage fraud.”
The Federal Reserve has said it would abide by the outcome of Cook’s ongoing legal case.
