The NYT Wants “Proof” Of Lisa Cook's Guilt? Here It Is.

What The New York Times Won't Acknowledge About Lisa Cook

Delusions and blatant falsehoods are not arguments. They are the recipe for a narrative which is almost guaranteed to implode at some point.

Common sense tells us this. The collapse of COVID narratives, of “muh Russia” collusion narratives, of “Joe Biden is conscious” narratives, also tell us this.

Yet I am not surprised that the New York Times refuses to admit this salient reality about journalism and news reporting, choosing instead to double down on a blatant lie about President Trump’s firing of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook: that he has no proof of wrongdoing.

The law does allow the president to remove Fed governors “for cause,” and Mr. Trump has not presented any evidence of wrongdoing by Ms. Cook, an economist whom President Joe Biden appointed to the job three years ago. Mr. Trump has asserted that she “may have made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements.” We have two words for the president: Prove it.

Readers of this Substack will undoubtedly recall that just the other day I provided Bill Pulte’s “receipts” supporting his allegations of fraud by Ms. Cook.

The Media Is (Still) Lying To You

If the New York Times wants to see the evidence developed thus far, their editors should sign their newsroom up to a few subscriptions for All Facts Matter. Then they won’t have to worry about putting out editorials as absurd, as asinine, and as delusionally psychotic as this wannabe jeremiad against Trump for firing Ms. Cook.

Then they would have some actual facts to guide whatever thought processes their editorial staff might have (although I make no assumptions that they possess any thought processes whatsoever).

Lisa Cook Still Has Some Explaining To Do

The inescapable reality of Lisa Cook’s situation is that there is documentation in the public record which indicates she claimed a Michigan property and a Georgia property as her “primary residence”, and that she did so on loan documents.

In his criminal referral letter to the Department of Justice, which he posted on X, Pulte made specific factual references to documents Lisa Cook signed with respects to two properties she owns, one in Michigan and one in George, both of which she claimed as her “primary resident”.

While Pulte did not post the exhibits supporting the referral letter directly, the letter itself makes it clear that the exhibits—evidence—were included with the referral letter.

Bill Pulte's Criminal Referral Letter On Lisa Cook

Pulte has shared excerpts of documents signed by Lisa Cook since becoming a Federal Reserve Governor that arguably contain false statements regarding one or both of the properties.

Not to mention that the New York Times ignores its own reporting that false claims on a mortgage loan application can result in fraud charges.

However, the New York Times concedes the obvious: that falsely claiming an investment property as a primary residence on a mortgage loan application can lead to a charge of mortgage fraud.

Kathleen Engel, a mortgage finance and regulation expert at Suffolk University Law School, said a borrower who intentionally deceived lenders by falsely affirming a primary residence in order to receive a benefit like a lower interest rate could be charged with fraud. But she said Mr. Pulte’s agency had not produced much evidence to support that claim.

Do these documents by themselves constitute evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Lisa Cook committed mortgage fraud? Ultimately, that is a question for a jury to decide, should the Department of Justice decide to prefer charges against her.

Perhaps most damning of all, however, is, as Scott Bessent pointed out on Fox News, Lisa Cook has not claimed actual innocence. She has not said “I did not do this.”

That’s rather a big deal.

We must remember that Pulte’s allegations against Lisa Cook are claims of fact, backed up with documentation. Pulte has shared much of that documentation already, which is to say Pulte has already provided evidence to support the charge.

Is Pulte wrong? Is he misreading the documents? Are the documents he’s referencing not the actual documents? These things we do not know and cannot know for certain. Vetting that evidence would be the role first of a grand jury and then a criminal trial, as to whether it constituted sufficient proof of criminal fraud.

But we do know that Lisa Cook has never come out and said: “I did not sign any such loan applications”. She has not said “I did not claim property [X] as my primary residence.” She has not even said that the claims were permissible under either state or federal statute.

With the documents themselves already made public, there cannot be a credible claim of privacy to justify her silence and her “non-denial” denials.

Instead, Ms. Cook channeled her inner Kamala Harris and said she would only answer “legitimate” questions about her finances.

In response to Pulte’s accusations, Cook said in a statement that she has “no intention of being bullied to step down from my position.”

“I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve, and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts,” she said.

The cynic in me wonders what “accurate information” does she need to gather? The response to the allegation of making a false claim on a mortgage application is a binary choice:

• Choice A: “Yes, I falsely claimed one or both properties as my primary residence on a loan application.”

• Choice B: “No, I did not falsely claim either property as my primary residence on a loan application.”

There is not a third option.

It may very well be the case that, should she answer with “B”, she might need to explain how the information she put on the mortgage loan documents for both properties was not false, even if she did technically claim them both as her primary residence. Perhaps there is a technicality or a loophole in the law that makes the claim permissible.

Such explanations would surely infuriate the MAGA Coalition, but if there are such technicalities in the law then Lisa Cook’s actions would not be either illegal or even unethical. Not only do We The People deserve to know such details, her professional reputation demands that We The People know such details, whether we like them or not.

She has not provided that explanation. She has not even hinted at that explanation.

Such reticence is not proof of anything in a court of law, where rules of evidence hold sway. It is, however, a damning indication of guilt in the court of public opinion.

Is Lisa Cook guilty of fraud?

Strictly speaking, we do not know, and we will not know outside of an investigation and trial.

However, her bobbing and weaving and avoiding a straightforward explanation of the documents Pulte references in his criminal referral letter is not a good public look for her. Even if it should be the case that the DoJ does not feel there is sufficient evidence to move forward with indictment and prosecution, this undeniable appearance of impropriety absolutely compromises her ability to credibly serve as a Federal Reserve Governor.

Under such circumstances, President Trump has little choice but to fire her. She’s damaged goods, and damaged by her actions and her inactions. This is all on her.

The New York Times threw down a gauntlet, challenging President Trump to prove his accusations.

I’ll pick up that gauntlet, and answer that challenge by inviting the editorial staff of the New York Times to read All Facts Matter. They might learn something—including a lesson or two on how to report the facts.