The White House has renewed its efforts to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, sending her a letter this week that signals President Donald Trump is "considering removing" her over the same mortgage fraud allegations that sparked a legal battle last year. This move comes despite a June Supreme Court ruling that upheld Cook's right to remain in her position while challenging the president's claims.
White House letter and allegations
According to a report by ABC News, the letter accuses Cook of falling "well short of the standard" expected of a sitting Fed governor and demands a written response within three weeks. The allegations, first levied last August, involve Cook's designation of two properties in Georgia and Michigan as her primary residence and her failure to report rental income on her Atlanta property for two years.
Cook, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022 to a 14-year term ending in 2038, has consistently denied the claims, describing them as based on "inadvertent" paperwork errors. Her legal team has accused the administration of "cherrypicking" facts to justify an unprecedented attack on the central bank's independence.
Supreme Court precedent and legal response
The Supreme Court's June ruling, decided 5-4, determined that Trump "failed to afford Cook the procedural protections to which she was entitled by statute." The justices wrote that without such protections, Cook "could not properly dispute the charges the president laid against her."
In response to the new letter, Cook's lawyer, Abbe D Lowell, stated: "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." Lowell added, "As we did before, we will challenge this latest pretext and preserve her position and the historic role of the Fed." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Background and broader context
Cook is the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor. Before her appointment, she served on Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers and taught at Harvard University and Stanford University. Her firing last August was part of a broader clash between Trump and the Fed over interest rates, with Trump criticizing then-Chair Jerome Powell as "too stupid and too political" and launching a Justice Department investigation into Powell's office renovations, which was later dropped.
The Fed is now led by Kevin Warsh, a Trump pick who has previously favored rate cuts but has pledged to base decisions on economic data. At a July hearing, Warsh told Democratic House members: "We're an independent central bank. We're honored to be independent."
Cook's legal battle continues to test the limits of presidential authority over independent agencies, with implications for the Fed's ability to set monetary policy without political interference. The case has drawn attention from legal scholars and economists, who see it as a pivotal moment for institutional checks and balances.
