President Trump is attempting to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook after being blocked from doing so by the Supreme Court.
The White House Personnel Office Director Dan Scavino wrote in a letter to Cook that Trump is weighing moving forward with removing her from her position. The letter, obtained by Fox News, says Cook was “hereby provided notice that the President is considering removing you from your position.” It explained there is “sufficient reason to believe that you made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements” and requested a response from Cook with her explanation for “false statements and accompanying evidence within 21 days.”
In June, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Trump cannot fire Cook. “To be clear, the ultimate question of whether the President can remove Cook for cause will depend in part on the underlying facts. In this opinion, we have not addressed the facts, as they have yet to be found or analyzed under the relevant legal standards. Rather, we have simply addressed the parties’ arguments about the appropriate legal standards under which the facts must be evaluated,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
In its petition to the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice argued that the “President may reasonably determine that interest rates paid by the American people should not be set by a Governor who appears to have lied about facts material to the interest rates she secured for herself and refuses to explain the apparent misrepresentations.”
President Trump originally dismissed Cook last year after allegations of mortgage fraud surfaced.
