'Ominous': WSJ editors torch Trump’s new 'dobermann' official hurling shaky fraud charges

An obscure bureaucrat in the Trump administration has become a massive attack dog against the president's critics, using the power of his office to drum up flimsy criminal fraud referrals one after another against them, the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote in a scathing analysis published Wednesday.

Bill Pulte, the regulator in charge of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), has already ruffled feathers at his own agency by trying to pressure Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell into resigning with shaky allegations of misconduct in their headquarters construction — but now he's stepping up his game, rifling through the federal mortgage information of public figures critical of Trump and filing complaints with the Justice Department alleging they have committed fraud on real estate forms.

Many of these allegations have been met with scathing responses, pointing out that they are baseless and misrepresent the terms of these real estate deals. But Pulte has continued on, and his current target is Lisa Cook, a Fed governor who refused to lower interest rates as Trump wanted. The editorial called it an "ominous turn."

"Mr. Pulte posted on social media Wednesday morning a criminal referral for Ms. Cook that he sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Special Attorney Ed Martin. The letter alleges that Ms. Cook misrepresented two properties in mortgage agreements in 2021 as her primary residence, though she had put one up for rent in 2022," wrote the board.

Currently, there is no publicly available evidence to support this assertion. Nevertheless, Trump swiftly called on her to resign and accused Powell of covering up her supposed misconduct.

"This is nasty business. Mr. Powell doesn’t have the authority to remove Ms. Cook, and why would he know anything about her mortgages?" wrote the board. "The context for Mr. Pulte’s accusations is relevant. Mr. Trump is angry that the Fed hasn’t cut interest rates. Ms. Cook voted with Mr. Powell to stand pat at last month’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee." Essentially, they continued, Trump "and his Dobermann at the FHFA are trying to bludgeon Ms. Cook into supporting a rate cut under threat of removal and criminal prosecution."

"Misstating information on mortgage applications doesn’t appear to be uncommon, and the problem may expose underwriting lapses at the lenders and Fannie and Freddie," wrote the board — and it should merit a broader investigation, but instead, Trump's DOJ, with Pulte's urging, is simply launching criminal investigations against Trump's opponents.

"One reason we opposed the Biden prosecutions of Mr. Trump is because political lawfare tends to boomerang, and here we are," the board concluded. "Weaponizing the housing regulator won’t build confidence in America’s institutions or markets."