(AFP) – US President Donald Trump is moving forward with an attempt to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over mortgage fraud allegations, according to a White House letter seen by AFP on Friday, after the Supreme Court batted him back in June.
“You are hereby provided notice that the President is considering removing you from your position,” reads a letter from the White House to Cook dated August 5 and signed by Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino. Cook has been given 21 days from the date of the letter to respond to unproven allegations that she made false statements on mortgage applications — charges that she has denied.
Trump has launched an unprecedented assault on the independence of the Federal Reserve in his second term, opening a criminal probe against previous chairman Jerome Powell and attempting to fire Cook. His move to dismiss Cook was the first such attempt by a president in the US central bank’s 111-year history. The Supreme Court ruled in June that Trump did not have the power to dismiss Fed governors “for any reason, or no reason.”
The US central bank is a non-partisan institution that makes monetary policy for the world’s largest economy, with governors appointed by the president after a Senate confirmation process. The Supreme Court made special mention of the importance of the Fed’s independence. The court said it decided the case “on the narrow ground that the President failed to afford Cook the procedural protections to which she was entitled by statute.” It did not rule on the underlying mortgage fraud allegations.
Trump reacted angrily to the June verdict, saying on social media he would take “appropriate action immediately” against Cook. The White House letter details the allegations against Cook, asserting that “at a minimum, this conduct was grossly negligent and demonstrates that you are unfit for the office.”
Referencing the Supreme Court’s decision, in which judges ruled that Trump had tried to fire Cook without giving her an opportunity to respond to the allegations, the letter demands she do so by August 26. Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor, has consistently denied the allegations against her.
“This was never about mortgage documents signed years before I became a Federal Reserve governor,” she said in a statement reported by US media after the Supreme Court ruling. “It was an attempt to remove me on a manufactured pretext because I refused to bow to political pressure and continued to set interest rates based only on what would best serve the American people.”
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren labeled the latest attempt to fire Cook as Trump “once again trying to illegally take over America’s central bank.” She added that Democrats would “fight back to make sure he fails.”
© 2024 AFP
