Supreme Court blocked Cook’s removal on due process grounds last year
Attorneys for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook told the White House in a Wednesday letter that President Donald Trump has “no legal basis” to fire her, arguing that the grounds Trump has cited for her removal do not justify dismissal.
Attorneys Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen sent the letter. They wrote that the basis Trump has pursued for Cook’s dismissal does not meet the threshold required to remove a Federal Reserve governor. The central bank’s status as an independent agency is considered critical to its function, so as to avoid political influence in monetary policy.
Cook has been accused of committing mortgage fraud for incorrectly listing a property as a vacation home on a mortgage document. She has said the mislabeling was an error.
“An inadvertent error is not fraud, as the President and a third of his cabinet should know because they reportedly did the same thing,” Cook’s attorneys said in a statement. “These attacks on Governor Cook are not about real estate paperwork; they are an attempt by President Trump to force the Federal Reserve to bend to his will.”
In his second term, Trump has targeted Cook and former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for removal as he presses the central bank to lower interest rates.
Trump’s effort to remove Cook dates back roughly a year. After Trump moved to dismiss her last August, Cook filed suit against the administration and won in court. The Supreme Court then blocked the president from removing her, ruling that Cook was denied due process when the administration did not demonstrate the cause of her removal.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling that Cook was entitled to at least “some explanation of the evidence at issue, some venue for a response, and a deadline by which a response would be due.”
Earlier this month, Dan Scavino, the White House deputy chief of staff, wrote a letter to the court again asking that the administration be allowed to dismiss Cook, reopening the legal fight the high court had previously blocked.
The renewed removal effort comes as the administration continues to press the central bank to lower interest rates.