Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook has sued President Donald Trump after he moved to fire her.
According to the lawsuit, Cook claimed her removal is “unprecedented and illegal.”
“President Trump’s conception of ’cause’ has no limiting principle,” the lawsuit says. “It would allow him to remove any Federal Reserve Board member with whom he disagrees about policy based on chalked-up allegations.”
Trump’s effort to remove Cook “would subvert the Federal Reserve Act … which explicitly requires a showing of ’cause’ for a Governor’s removal, which an unsubstantiated allegation about private mortgage applications submitted by Governor Cook prior to her Senate confirmation is not,” the filing adds.
The filing further notes that Cook is the “first Black woman to sit on the Federal Reserve’s Board in its 111-year history.”
The lawsuit comes as President Trump fired Cook over mortgage fraud allegations. Citing the Federal Reserve Act, Trump wrote in a letter addressed to Cook, “You are hereby removed from your position on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately.”
“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. 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,” Trump’s letter read, concluding, “I have determined that faithfully executing the law requires your immediate removal from office.”
Cook asserted that she will not resign from her position, but will instead “continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.”
