While the president does not control the Federal Reserve, Donald Trump is pushing hard to have Lisa Cook removed from its board of governors.
Trump’s latest move involves seeking an emergency order to remove Cook after an appeals court rejected his previous attempt, the Associated Press reports. The unprecedented effort to reshape the Fed board, intended to remain largely independent, would make him the first president in the agency’s 112-year history to fire a sitting governor.
In its new filing to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration is asking Chief Justice John Roberts for a temporary order that would effectively remove Cook from the board and a more lasting order from the whole court that would be in place while her legal case continues.
This follows the court’s recent rejection of Trump’s attempt to fire Cook, a setback that may be unfamiliar to him, as he has previously secured orders from the conservative-majority court to remove presidentially appointed leaders of other independent agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board and the Federal Trade Commission, even while legal battles over their positions were ongoing.
Those firings were at will, with no cause given, but the Supreme Court has distinguished the Federal Reserve, strongly suggesting that Trump can’t act against Fed governors without cause.
In August, Trump attempted to fire Cook over alleged mortgage fraud involving two properties in Michigan and Georgia, which she was said to have claimed as primary residences in mid-2021.
However, a federal judge recently ruled the removal illegal and reinstated her to the Fed board. Documents show Cook’s Atlanta condo was listed as a “vacation home” and described as a “second home,” undermining the administration’s fraud claims. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled that Fed governors can only be fired “for cause,” limited to misconduct while in office.
Cook was not on the board until 2022, when she was appointed to the Fed’s board by President Joe Biden.
Cobb also noted that Trump’s firing would have denied Cook her due process. After a 2-1 vote blocked the administration’s request to proceed, Trump’s lawyers argued that even if the alleged conduct occurred before her tenure as governor, it “indisputably calls into question Cook’s trustworthiness and whether she can be a responsible steward of the interest rates and economy.”
Cook’s lawyers are urging the justices to reject Trump’s “extraordinary step” to remove her.
“Temporarily removing her from her post would threaten our nation’s economic stability and raise questions about the Federal Reserve’s continued independence—risking shock waves in the financial markets that could not easily be undone,” Cook’s lawyers said.
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