CNN’s Elie Honig says judge could ‘defer’ to Trump in Lisa Cook case

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said Friday that a federal judge may defer to President Donald Trump’s judgment in the controversy surrounding Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s real estate dealings.

Trump said Monday that he was firing Cook over her alleged mortgage fraud. During a segment on “The Arena With Kasie Hunt,” Honig said a judge could side with Trump in the case, citing both political pressure and Cook’s own questionable mortgage filings.

“Look, when you do a mortgage, there’s all sorts of paperwork flying in terms, and maybe you can get confused or lost. I don’t know if you’re gonna buy that from Lisa Cook, but the bottom-line question, as Caitlin just said, is who has to show what here? I think that the allegations on their face could be enough for a judge to say, ‘Look, I’m gonna defer to the president on cause,’” Honig said.

Honig opened his analysis by laying out two truths in the case.

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“Two things appear to be true at the same time. One, it seems quite clear that Donald Trump and Bill Pulte, who’s the head of this housing finance agency, have targeted Lisa Cook. They want to remove her from the Fed because they don’t like what the Fed is doing on interest rates. That seems quite clear from the public statements of Donald Trump and [Federal Housing Finance Agency Director] Bill Pulte. It also is true that there is some suspicious activity here that’s really problematic by Lisa Cook,” Honig said.

Cook allegedly declared multiple properties as her primary residence within weeks of each other.

“There’s three properties, OK? Within a two-week stretch, she purchases, she gets a mortgage on a place in Michigan and says that’s her principal residence. Two weeks later, she gets a mortgage on a place in Atlanta, in Georgia, and says that’s her primary residence,” Honig said. “And now there’s a third place in Cambridge that she said was her secondary residence, but she’s actually renting it out. Now why would someone do all this? Because you get better interest rates, because you get better tax benefits.”

Honig pointed to what he said was the lack of a credible explanation from Cook or her legal team as a weakness in her case.

“That can be worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thus far, and I find this really notable, in the briefs that have been submitted by Lisa Cook’s lawyer. She was the plaintiff here. She filed the opening brief. No explanation of what she did, how this happened,” Honig said. “There’s some reference to maybe it’s a clerical error. Today, in court, Abby Wall, very good lawyer. Again, no explanation of how this happened. And the claim that this might be a clerical error or just a mistake, that’s not gonna fly, because Lisa Cook is one of the most established, accomplished financial and economic experts in this country.”

Cook filed a lawsuit against Trump on Thursday, challenging his decision to remove her from office. Her legal team said that Trump’s termination was both “unprecedented and illegal.” A federal judge heard arguments Friday in the case but issued no immediate ruling, allowing Cook to remain in office as the court reviews further legal briefs.

Trump publicly urged Cook to resign days earlier in an Aug. 20 Truth Social post, following Pulte’s announcement that he would refer Cook to the DOJ over alleged mortgage fraud.

Under the Federal Reserve Act, a president may only remove a Fed governor “for cause.”