Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook has been determined to not have broken tax break rules in a finding produced by the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan – where Cook’s primary residence is.
Cook was ordered to be removed from the Federal Reserve Board by President Donald Trump on Aug. 25 after he had claimed there to be “sufficient reason” to believe that Cook had falsified statements on her mortgage. This comes as an unprecedented move for a president to make, with Cook suing Trump in response.
Cook stated Trump had no authority to remove her, and stated, “I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.”
On Sept. 9, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s firing of Cook until the case against her is heard in full. On Sept. 15, a response to a request made by Reuters that Ann Arbor reviews Cook’s property records came back, with the city stating that they had “no reason to believe” that Cook broke any tax rules.
The claim specifically was that Cook had lied to lenders about two mortgages that she had taken out, where she allegedly claimed that both were for a primary residence, despite one being a primary residence and the other a vacation home in an effort to gain discounts on mortgage rates by declaring a residence as one’s primary residence, among other benefits.
According to a loan estimate for her Atlanta mortgage, her vacation property was properly listed as a vacation home. Whether the declaration of the property as a vacation home changed at any time past this estimate remains unclear, though Georgia officials claim that she had never declared her vacation home in Atlanta as a primary residence.