Fed governor Lisa Cook will sue to keep her job as Trump mulls replacement
Cook is challenging Trump’s unprecedented attempt to fire her, potentially sparking a legal battle over the Fed’s independence
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook will file a lawsuit to prevent US President Donald Trump from firing her, a lawyer for the embattled central bank official said on Tuesday, kicking off what could be a protracted legal fight over the White House’s effort to shape US monetary policy.
“His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis. We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action,” Cook’s lawyer, prominent Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell, said in a statement.
The statement was issued a day after Trump said he would fire Cook, the first black woman to serve on the central bank’s governing body, for alleged “deceitful and potential criminal conduct” related to mortgages she took out in 2021.
Trump’s attempt to remove her, unprecedented in the 111-year history of the nominally independent US Federal Reserve Board, is consistent with his style of breaking norms and prompting opponents to challenge him in court.
It follows other largely successful efforts to bring other elements of the US government under his direct control. Since returning to office in January, the president has overseen the departure of hundreds of thousands of civil servants, dismantled several agencies and withheld billions of dollars of spending authorised by Congress.
“We need people that are 100 per cent above board and it doesn’t seem like she was,” Trump told reporters at a meeting. He said he had several “good people” in mind to replace Cook but would abide by any court decision that left her in her job.