On August 15, Bill Pulte, director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), wrote a criminal referral letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi pointing out that Cook had "falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute."

Pulte continued: "This has included falsifying resident statuses for an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based residence and an Atlanta, Georgia-based property in order to potentially lower interest rates and more favorable loan terms." 

In response, on August 20, President Trump reacted to the allegation, posting on Truth Social: "Cook must resign, now!!!

Rather than resign, Cook said, according to ZeroHedge, that had "no intention of being bullied to step down because of some questions raised in a tweet."

Pulte immediate responded with apparent indignation.

Addressing Cook directly, he said: "you've been caught based on mortgage documents, not a tweet. It's black and white. We go after people who commit mortgage fraud, and you signed the mortgage documents, no one else. And you did it within 14 days of each other."

Still, Cook did not resign, despite Trump's clear directive to do so. Having forced the President's hand, he has now removed Cook from her position at the Federal Reserve.

In a letter addressed to Cook dated March 25, Trump wrote: "Pursuant to my authority under Article II of the Constitution of the United States and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, as amended, you are hereby removed from your position on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately."

Pointing to the information supplied to the Attorney General by Pulse's criminal referral, Trump continued: "The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve. In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter, they cannot and I do not have such confidence in your integrity. At a minimum, the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator."

The President concluded: "I have determined that faithfully executing the law requires your immediate removal from office."

Leftist Activist

Lisa Cook was appointed to the Federal Reserve by former President Joe Biden. Previously, according to her profile at the American Economic Association, she "worked with U2’s Bono to persuade senior White House officials on the merits of debt relief to poor countries." 

Her work prior to her appointment to the Federal Reserve by President Biden, Cook's work as an economist included significant focus on forcing "improved" diversity, equity and inclusion in corporate and academic science and innovation.

In a policy paper for "The Hamilton Project" -- an outgrowth of the left-wing Brookings Institution -- she argued that since the 1960s, "both women and underrepresented minorities have obtained an increasing (though still not equal) share of bachelor's degrees and advanced degrees in fields most associated with invention -- the STEM fields. Despite this progress, we do not observe a similar increase in patenting activity among these groups."

"Women and African Americans," she complained in her 2020 policy paper, "remain underrepresented in the innovation economy." 

To address this, she argued, federal agencies, should prioritize reduction of white men in roles that impact applications for programs that support innovation activities. "Currently," she complained, "the people who serve as reviewers of applicants for premier innovation programs are primarily white men...."

Moreover, in private workplaces, she alleged, "developments have highlighted the problem of systemic racism and its manifestations in the innovation economy and workplace."

Such positions mark Cook out as a revolutionary who would replace merit-based achievement and advancement with identity politics. 

This has, in fact, been the ascendent policy in academia for years, including in STEM programs, where diversity has been prioritized over achievement. White students, especially white men, have been deprioritized at scale, leading to the departure of this demographic from higher education programs. 

According to the Pew Research Center, women, regardless of ethnic background, are outpacing men in achievement in higher education. "Women between the ages of 25 and 34 continue to be more likely than men in the same age group to have a bachelor’s degree," Pew reported. "The gender gap in bachelor’s degree completion appears in every major racial or ethnic group, though the size of the gap varies widely."

This is not because men can't hack it in academia. Instead, it's because academia doesn't want men. Economist Richard Vedder, writing in Forbes, noted: "young men increasingly feel colleges don’t want them. Professors and student activists rant about 'white male privilege. Colleges are trying to literally throw prominent dead white male alumni off campus, taking their names off buildings or even removing statutes." These actions send a message - men are not welcome.

Yet, what Cook argued was true in part -- men still contribute more in innovation, as measured by patent applications and grants, than do women and minorities. Why is that? For Cook, it's "structural racism" and discrimination. 

More likely: those who get their degrees on skids greased by DEI are less capable of innovation in the private sector than their peers who had no such liberal advantage given them.

In her specific case, Lisa Cook is alleged to have attempted to gain advantage through mortgage fraud. That might have worked under Joe Biden. 

Now, however, she gets to join the ranks of those millions of men who are desperately hoping someone, somewhere, will hire them. 

Unlike those men, Lisa Cook will almost certainly find a plum posting somewhere in academia or with a liberal NGO where she can continue inveighing against the myth of structural racism.