Donald Trump announced on Friday that he is establishing a committee to investigate Lisa Cook, the US Federal Reserve governor, over allegations that she committed mortgage fraud, renewing his efforts to oust her despite a June supreme court ruling that her earlier firing was unconstitutional. Trump said a committee will consult with justice department officials to decide whether there is “cause” for her removal. The White House will hold an in-person hearing on 5 November to consider the allegations against Cook, which will be closed to the public but transcribed and published.
Cook will be able to submit a written statement to present her own evidence and will be subject to examination from White House and her own legal counsel. Her legal team has maintained that the White House is “cherrypicking” facts and any claims of fraud are based on unrelated clerical errors. In response to the announcement, Cook’s lawyers said that they had “grave doubts” that the White House hearing would be “a legitimate one that would conform to the law”.
Cook was appointed by Joe Biden in 2022 to a 14-year term, becoming the Fed’s first Black governor. Before her tenure at the central bank, she taught at Harvard University and Stanford University and served on Barack Obama’s council of economic advisers. Cook’s battle with the White House began in August 2025 when she was abruptly fired after Trump said she committed mortgage fraud by listing two properties in Georgia and Michigan as her primary residence and failing to report rental income on her Atlanta property.
Cook immediately sued the Trump administration, and the supreme court reinstated her after a 5-4 ruling that she could stay on as governor while fighting the fraud allegations. In June, the court ruled that Trump’s firing was unconstitutional because he did not follow proper procedure and give Cook an opportunity to dispute the allegations before she was fired. Cook was fired just as Trump was launching unprecedented attacks on the Fed’s chair, then Jerome Powell, in his blustering push to get the central bank to lower interest rates.
Trump also launched a justice department investigation into Powell, which was dropped in April. Congress created the Fed to be an independent and non-partisan institution. Economists widely agree that a central bank unswayed by politics is essential for the stability of a country’s economy.
Kevin Warsh, Powell’s successor, has repeatedly faced questions over how he will maintain the Fed’s independence. Before Trump picked him to lead the world’s most powerful central bank, he had echoed the president’s calls for cutting rates. But because of elevated inflation brought on by the war in the Middle East, the bank ultimately voted to raise rates in its last meeting, which drew the ire of the White House just more than a month before the crucial midterm elections.
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