‘He has no authority': Fed governor Cook vows to fight Trump firing

WASHINGTON (CN) — A top Federal Reserve official is defiant after President Donald Trump abruptly announced Monday night that he would fire her as members of his administration accuse her of mortgage fraud.

The president told Lisa Cook in a letter, posted to his social media platform Truth Social, that he had determined there was “sufficient cause” to fire her from the Fed’s board of governors. He said he had reason to believe she made false statements on mortgage agreements.

But Cook told Courthouse News in a statement Tuesday morning that Trump had no power to remove her from the government’s central bank.

“President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so,” she said. “I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.”

Abbe Lowell, Cook’s attorney, signaled in a separate statement that the Fed governor was weighing legal action against the president, saying that Trump’s “reflex to bully” is flawed and that his firing sidestepped proper process and had no legal basis.

“We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action,” he said.

Lowell, who previously represented Hunter Biden and other high-profile figures, earlier this year launched Lowell & Associates, a Washington-based firm established to defend clients who are facing what he has called politically motivated lawsuits.

Trump’s move to can Cook came just days after Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte sent the Justice Department a criminal referral against the Fed governor, accusing her of falsifying property records in two states to secure favorable loan terms.

Pulte says Cook entered into mortgage agreements in 2021 in Michigan and Georgia, just two weeks apart, on the condition that each would serve as her primary residence for one year. The two agreements totaled nearly $750,000.

The criminal referral spurred Trump to call on the Fed governor to resign.

Cook, however, told Courthouse News in a statement last week that she would not step down, adding that she had learned about Pulte’s accusations from media reports — and that the mortgage applications he cited were made before she was appointed to the Federal Reserve.

Still, Pulte’s report formed the basis of the president’s decision late Monday night to fire her.

“The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve,” Trump wrote. “In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter, they cannot and I do not have such confidence in your integrity.”

Meanwhile, Democrats on Capitol Hill slammed the president for his attempt to fire a governing member of the Federal Reserve, which has historically maintained independence from the executive branch.

“This attempted firing shreds the independence of the Fed and puts every American’s savings and mortgage at risk,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Donald Trump is playing a dangerous game of Jenga with a key pillar of our economy.”

The top Senate Democrat added that the president would “own every ounce” of economic damage wrought by his “brazen power grab.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued that Trump had attempted to fire Cook “without a shred of credible evidence” of wrongdoing.

“To the extend anyone is unfit to serve in a position of responsibility because of deceitful and potentially criminal conducts, it is the current occupant of the White House,” Jeffries said in a statement. “The American people are not buying your phony projection and slander of a distinguished public servant.”

Trump has for weeks intensely criticized the Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell, over the central bank’s reticence to cut interest rates despite the president’s belief that inflation is cooling. Republicans in Congress have gone so far as to suggest that Trump fire Powell himself — an unprecedented move that would further threaten the Fed’s historical independence.

Powell last week signaled that current economic conditions “may warrant” cutting interest rates but insisted that there was still a high level of uncertainty and the Fed would need to tread carefully.

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