Trump administration reopens bid to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook
TheGrio...
Cook’s lawyers say the latest effort relies on the same allegations they have repeatedly dismissed as unfounded and politically motivated.
The Trump administration has reopened its campaign against Lisa D. Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, roughly two months after the Supreme Court blocked an earlier attempt to force her out.
According to The New York Times, the White House sent Cook a letter Wednesday stating it was “considering” her removal and giving her 21 days to respond to mortgage fraud allegations first raised a year ago.
The letter was signed by deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino. Notably, Cook has never been charged with a crime, nor convicted of any wrongdoing, in the year since the accusations surfaced.
The renewed effort follows a June ruling in which the Supreme Court sided 5-4 with a lower court, finding Cook should have been given a formal opportunity to contest the claims against her. That decision allowed her to remain in a term running through 2038.
But as the Times noted, the justices stopped short of defining exactly what would justify removal, leaving an opening the administration is now moving to exploit.
The Federal Reserve Act permits a president to remove a sitting Fed official only “for cause,” a standard traditionally understood to mean gross negligence or dereliction of duty. The allegations against Cook center on mortgages taken out on multiple properties each listed as a primary residence, which she has previously attributed to clerical errors.
Her attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, pushed back forcefully, saying the claims remain “as baseless now as they were a year ago” and framing the move as interference with the central bank’s independence. They pledged to challenge what they called another pretext.
The stakes extend well beyond one governor’s seat. Trump has openly pressed for lower borrowing costs, and removing Cook would let him install an ally, subject to Senate confirmation.
The Times reported that Jerome Powell chose to remain a governor after his term as chair ended in May, citing concerns about threats to Fed independence, while Kevin Warsh now leads the institution.
Cook, meanwhile, recently signaled she would back higher rates should inflation fail to ease, a position at odds with the president’s stated preference.