Pulte refuses to say where he got Lisa Cook mortgage fraud ‘tip’

Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump‘s housing finance chief, on Thursday repeatedly declined to offer any details about where he got the “tip” that led him to accuse Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud.

“I’m not going to explain our sources and methods, where we get tips from, who are whistleblowers,” Pulte said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“It would be reckless for me to do that,” he said.

That refusal came after CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin noted that Pulte’s targeting of Cook — in multiple criminal referrals to the Department of Justice and in a torrent of aggressive social media posts — is creating the perception of “political weaponization.”

“If, for example, the tip came from inside the administration, or came from even inside your agency, with somebody who works for you … then that creates the perception issue,” Sorkin said, adding that shedding light on the tipster could help Pulte explain his actions.

But Pulte bristled at the question.

“I don’t need you to help me explain things, Andrew,” he replied.

When he was asked again about the source of the tip later in the interview, Pulte said, “I think we’re worried about the wrong thing. There’s an alleged crime here. Why aren’t we talking about the crime? Why are we blaming the investigators?”

Trump moved to fire Cook from the Fed Board of Governors for “cause” in response to the allegations made by Pulte, which are currently under investigation by the Justice Department. Pulte has accused Cook of claiming multiple properties as her primary residence.

Trump has relentlessly urged the central bank and its chairman, Jerome Powell, to lower interest rates, and he has predicted that he will soon have a “majority” on the Fed board that votes on those rates.

Cook has denied ever committing mortgage fraud. She has sued Trump to block her firing.

Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, denied on CNBC that his actions against Cook are politically motivated.

“We make referrals almost every day. Lisa cook happened to be one of them,” he said.

But Pulte has treated Cook far differently than others targeted by the FHFA for possible mortgage violations. Since revealing his allegations, he has sent dozens of social media posts criticizing both Cook Powell, whom Pulte argues should also be fired by Trump.

And when Sorkin asked if Pulte was also looking at Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas who has reportedly claimed three properties as his primary residence, Pulte said he would not comment.

“If things are made public then, and, or, if we decide to make them public, then I will talk about it,” he said.

The interview came less than two hours before Pulte had been scheduled to hold a press conference on Cook outside of the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C.

But Pulte abruptly cancelled that presser on Wednesday afternoon, saying in an X post that the was doing so “out of respect for the process.”

In Thursday’s interview, he said, “I don’t want to say why I necessarily did” back out of the event.