A veteran defense lawyer with a decadeslong career navigating Washington’s most politically charged cases sharply pushed back Monday against the Trump administration’s mortgage fraud inquiries targeting New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, accusing federal officials of weaponizing thin claims to go after the president’s perceived enemies.
Abbe Lowell, long known for representing high-profile political figures, submitted a blistering motion on Monday evening to dismiss the two-count indictment against James, as well as a separate letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi defending Cook. Lowell is also representing former national security adviser John Bolton in his prosecution for classified documents and previously represented Hunter Biden in his criminal tax and firearm cases. Lowell, at 73, is one of the most prominent attorneys now defending multiple high-profile clients in the administration’s crosshairs.
“Perhaps in no case before this Court has there been a more shocking course of government conduct,” Lowell wrote in a motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He argued that the charges against James and the criminal referrals involving Cook stem from an aggressive and unprecedented push by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte to use the mortgage oversight agency as “a political weapon.”
James was indicted on Oct. 9 over a Norfolk, Virginia, residence she allegedly misrepresented in order to secure favorable loan terms. Prosecutors say she claimed the home would serve as a secondary residence, but instead rented it to a family, a shift they estimate would have saved her nearly $19,000 over the life of the mortgage.
Lowell countered that Fannie Mae investigators found “insufficient evidence” of wrongdoing but were overridden by Pulte, who “pressed forward nonetheless.” He said Bondi, Special Attorney Ed Martin, and Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan then worked together “to morph a threadbare theory into a federal prosecution.”
In his separate 17-page letter to Bondi, obtained by the Washington Examiner, Lowell dismantled the FHFA referrals, accusing Cook of designating multiple homes as primary residences.
The allegations, he said, rest on “one stray reference” in a 2021 mortgage document that was “plainly innocuous in light of the several other truthful and more specific disclosures” Cook provided about her properties.
2025.11.17 L. Cook Response to FHFA Referral and Exs. by reportoftheday
“There is no fraud, no intent to deceive, nothing whatsoever criminal,” Lowell wrote to President Donald Trump’s attorney general.
Cook has not been charged. But Trump earlier this year cited Pulte’s referrals as grounds to try to fire her from the FRB, the first attempted removal of a Fed governor in the institution’s history. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on her challenge in January.
Lowell also accused Pulte of singling out Democrats while bypassing similar allegations involving Republicans, including Trump Cabinet members and even individuals in Pulte’s own family, according to investigative reporting from ProPublica. The pattern, Lowell wrote, suggests the referrals were driven not by mortgage market concerns but by political coordination with the White House.
His letter cited internal turmoil at FHFA and Fannie Mae, citing reports that watchdogs and ethics officials were fired or sidelined after resisting Pulte’s push to obtain mortgage records for political targets. Some officials were allegedly removed after raising concerns over the legality of obtaining lender data on Democratic officeholders.
Such disputes “undercut” the credibility of the referrals against Cook, Lowell said, arguing that the full record shows no contradictions — only “cherry-picking one line from one document” to justify Trump’s attempt to reshape the Federal Reserve.
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James is expected to argue for dismissal at a forthcoming hearing in the Eastern District of Virginia on Dec. 4. The case against Cook remains at the referral stage pending review by the Department of Justice.
Lowell said the DOJ should drop both matters. “The referrals are baseless and should not have been made in the first place,” he wrote, urging prosecutors to decline further action.
