President Donald Trump's Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte has been on a tear accusing various critics of the administration of mortgage fraud — most recently Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, whom he claimed improperly took out mortgages on two separate properties as primary residences. However, a new Reuters report throws this in serious doubt, by revealing that preliminary loan documents indicate she had disclosed to her credit union one would be a vacation home.
The apparent misfire, which could significantly complicate Trump's attempts to fire Cook from the Fed, resulted in an explosion from commenters on social media, who broadly mocked Pulte — particularly since separate reporting suggested his parents had in fact committed the same fraud he tried to pin on Cook.
"Wait, so the entire claim that Cook claimed two primary residences was…false?" wrote Maryville College history professor Aaron Astor.
"I’ve been saying all along, as someone who’s handled extensive mortgage litigation, that these loan files are very complicated and can be thousands of pages," wrote veteran and former trial lawyer John Jackson. "Now it appears Lisa Cook did nothing wrong and was actually defamed by @pulte. What an idiot."
"So the bad faith pretext was also just fake?" wrote Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias.
"Wowow, @pulte!! Is this why even right wingers think you're a loose canon [sic]?" wrote national security journalist Marcy "emptywheel" Wheeler. "Will you go to prison for lying to the FBI?"
"I really do hope she sues every single person possible, so that there is as much discovery as can possibly be provided, and that she keeps right on suing even after that," wrote MSNBC columnist Kali Holloway.
"Catching up on FHFA Director Bill Pulte's efforts, it sounds like Lisa Cook did not claim two primary residences at the same time, but Pulte's dad did?" wrote Mother Jones reporter Dan Friedman. "Tough week for that guy."
"Trump fired a Black woman economist from the Federal Reserve based on a lie pushed by a Twitter influencer, and the documents prove it," wrote investment banker Evaristus Odinikaeze. "Lisa Cook did not commit mortgage fraud. There was no double primary residence. Just another smear campaign used as political cover. Will there be accountability for the people who lied? Or does character assassination now pass as policy?"
"So, the only mortgage fraud discovered in all of this was Bill Pulte's family? May she sue the hell out of everyone," wrote former congressional staffer and Democratic campaign strategist Rhonda Elaine Foxx.