Bessent made same claims Trump cited to fire Lisa Cook

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once agreed to call two different houses his “principal residence” at the same time — a similar claim to the one that President Donald Trump cited when he tried to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, according to a report Wednesday.

Documents show that on the same day in September 2007, Bessent agreed that homes in both Bedford Hills, New York, and Provincetown, Massachusetts, each would be his principal residence, Bloomberg reported.

Cook signed mortgage agreements declaring that houses in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Atlanta were each her principal residences, according to prior reports.

Cook signed those documents within two weeks of each other in summer 2021, before she was appointed to the Fed’s Board.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has repeatedly accused Cook of mortgage fraud after posting her mortgage documents on social media in August. The Justice Department opened an investigation of Cook after receiving a criminal referral from Pulte.

Trump said on Aug. 25 that he was firing Cook based on Pulte’s allegations. Cook, who has sued to block her removal, has denied committing mortgage fraud.

A U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., and a federal appeals court have ruled that Trump cannot fire Cook while her suit continues.

Trump’s effort to remove Cook came after he unsuccessfully pressured the Fed for months to slash interest rates.

Bessent, in an interview in August with Fox Business Network, was asked about Cook’s situation.

“There are people who think that President Trump is putting undue pressure on the Fed,” Bessent said.

“And there are people like President Trump and myself who think that if a Fed official committed mortgage fraud, that this should be examined, and that they shouldn’t be serving as one of the nation’s leading financial regulators.”

Bloomberg’s new report noted that Cook’s and Bessent’s situations are not identical.

Cook had personally signed her mortgage agreements, while Bessent’s were signed on his behalf by a lawyer. And both of Bessent’s mortgages were with the same bank, while Cook’s were with two different banks.

However, there is evidence that lenders knew Bessent’s and Cook’s actual plans for the respective properties.

Reuters reported last week that a May 2021 loan estimate indicates that Cook had called the Atlanta property a “vacation home.”

Bessent’s representatives gave Bloomberg a statement from Bank of America, which said the lender understood “that the Bedford and Provincetown properties were secondary residences.”

CNBC has requested comment on Bloomberg’s report from the Treasury Department and the FHFA.

Charles Rich, the lawyer who represented Bessent in the 2007 mortgage agreements, gave a statement to CNBC.

“I was Mr. Bessent’s attorney and agent under a Power of Attorney made in September 2007 when I signed a mortgage to finance the purchase of a new residence for Mr. Bessent in Bedford Hills, New York under a mortgage loan,” Rich said.

“Concurrently with the 2007 closing, I executed a second mortgage on a property located in Provincetown, MA as additional collateral,” he said.

“Bank of America was fully aware that the Provincetown, MA property was not a principal residence and waived any requirement that it be used as a principal residence,” Rich said.

“There was absolutely nothing improper about Mr. Bessent’s loan applications with which he was minimally involved as he had delegated authority to me as his lawyer and an agent to close these loan transactions,” he said.