Lisa Cook's lawyer vows Trump and Bill Pulte 'won't succeed' in mortgage fraud push
WASHINGTON, DC: Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook’s lawyer on Monday, June 30, vowed that President Trump and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte “won’t succeed” in pursuing Cook’s prosecution on allegations of mortgage fraud.
The Lisa Cook case is rooted in Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, alleging she had committed mortgage fraud. Cook responded with a legal challenge to keep her position, leading to Supreme Court intervention.
Lisa Cook’s lawyer says there’s no ground to indict her
The attorney of Lisa Cook, after the Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s efforts to oust Cook, said that there is no ground to fire the Fed Governor.
After both the president and Pulte, who is also acting Director of National Intelligence, promised to continue their legal campaign against her, Abbe Lowell, who’s serving as legal counsel to Cook, said those efforts would ultimately fail.
“Do I think that there’s grounds to indict her? No. Do I think that any real prosecutor in America would present it? No. Do I think in a different era this could even be something that you and I would talk about? No,” Lowell said during a Monday appearance on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins.”
“Do I think somebody that takes whatever Donald Trump does and does it, whether it used to be Alina Habba in New Jersey or Lindsey Halligan in Virginia, will try to do something that he says? It’s quite possible. But you know what? As in those other cases, they won’t succeed,” he added, referring to two US attorneys who have since been forced out of their positions.
Lowell said the Trump administration actively attempts to “basically mislead or misdirect or do things to get indictments where they don’t belong.”
Lowell further pointed to the unsuccessful mortgage fraud case of New York Attorney General Letitia James, whom he also represents, as an indicator of where the Cook case is heading.
Judges say Cook is entitled to notice and to respond
The Supreme Court ruled Monday, June 29, that Cook cannot be removed from her position without prior notice and an opportunity to respond. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the court’s three liberal justices.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett dissented.
The decision allows Cook to remain on the Federal Reserve Board for now, even as Trump and Pulte continue pushing to have her criminally charged over alleged mortgage fraud.
“The Cook Lawsuit, having to do with her suitability in sitting on the Board of the Federal Reserve, was sent back by the Supreme Court on a strictly procedural basis, we will take appropriate action immediately to make sure that someone who has committed wrongdoing will not be making vital decisions,” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.
