Fed Gov. Lisa Cook received notice that the White House is "considering" removing her and gave her three weeks to respond.
President Donald Trump restarted his effort to remove Lisa Cook from the board of the Federal Reserve following a Supreme Court ruling against him.
ABC News reported that Cook received notice that the White House was "considering" removing her and gave her three weeks to respond. Cook, a Biden appointee, is one of the 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the Fed's interest rate policy.
Trump alleges Cook committed mortgage fraud. After he attempted to remove her, she sued for wrongful termination. Three properties are at the heart of the investigation.
In a statement to Realtor.com®, Cook's lawyers, Abbe D. Lowell and Norm Eisen, called the allegations "as baseless now as they were a year ago when President Trump tried to remove Governor Cook and interfere with the independence of the Federal Reserve.
"No matter what President Trump tries to do next, this much is clear under the facts and Supreme Court precedent—there is no valid cause for removing Governor Cook," the statement said. "As we did before, we will challenge this latest pretext and preserve her position and the historic role of the Fed."
A June ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the termination while the investigation played out. In a 5-4 opinion, the court denied Trump's attempt to dismiss Cook outright
That was based on "the longstanding historical practice and understanding that the Federal Reserve is an independent agency whose governors enjoy for-cause removal protection consistent with Article II of the Constitution,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said in a concurring opinion.
After the ruling, Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, wrote that the court's decision in the Cook case was based on "a strictly procedural basis."
He said, "We will take appropriate action immediately to make sure that someone who has committed wrongdoing will not be making vital decisions concerning the Welfare of the United States of America!"
Trump's bid to fire Cook comes as he's been preoccupied with lowering interest rates, seeing it as a key to affordability. That also included clashes with former Fed Chair Jerome Powell when the Fed held its policy rate steady last spring and summer. Trump later named Kevin Warsh to lead the Fed after Powell's term ended. Under Warsh, though, the Fed has held rates steady.