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Lisa Cook has rejected Donald Trump’s effort to fire her over “an inadvertent oversight” in mortgage documents as the Federal Reserve governor hit back against the president’s renewed attempt to remove her from office.
In a letter on Wednesday, Cook’s lawyers claimed she mistakenly listed two properties as her primary residence, which did not amount to “intentional wrongdoing”.
The letter came after the White House wrote to Cook earlier this month to formally notify her that Trump was again considering whether to dismiss her over allegations of mortgage fraud.
The White House’s year-long campaign against her has intensified concerns about the independence of the world’s leading central bank. It comes after the president repeatedly clashed with former chair Jay Powell for failing to cut interest rates sufficiently.
“Governor Cook has never committed mortgage fraud or any intentional wrongdoing, and there is no legally cognisable cause for removing her from the Federal Reserve board,” Abbe Lowell, Cook’s lawyer, wrote in Wednesday’s letter to White House counsel David Warrington.
Lowell also alleged that a number of Trump administration officials — including the president — had acquired primary residence mortgages for multiple homes.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The president initially sought to oust Cook last August after federal housing director Bill Pulte made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice alleging she had claimed primary residence status on two properties. Cook has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Fed governor could remain in her position because Trump had failed to let her properly dispute his efforts to unseat her.
The referral against Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor, alleged she signed mortgage papers over a two-week period in 2021 attesting that properties in Michigan and Georgia would serve as her primary residence, a designation that often confers favourable interest rates.
Lowell said on Wednesday that “despite an inference to the contrary” Trump officials had not shown that Cook “actually received a preferential interest rate on any property”.
White House deputy chief of staff Daniel Scavino renewed the claims against Cook in the letter on August 5. “At a minimum, this conduct was grossly negligent and demonstrates that you are unfit for the office in which you serve as a controlling member of the Federal Reserve,” he wrote.
Trump has waged a campaign against the Fed’s independence throughout his second term, urging the central bank to slash rates. He branded Powell a “moron” and “stubborn mule” for refusing to do so.
The DoJ criminally investigated Powell over renovations to the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, but the probe was later dropped after pushback from Republican lawmakers.
