(AFP) – Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook rejected renewed mortgage fraud allegations from the White House on Wednesday, saying President Donald Trump has no lawful grounds to fire her. Her response, sent by attorney Abbe Lowell and seen by AFP, meets a deadline set by an August 5 letter in which Trump said he was considering removing her from the US central bank’s board.
That move was the second attempt by Trump to oust Cook after the Supreme Court blocked the first in June in a 5-4 ruling that found he had failed to give her notice and a chance to answer the allegations. No president has removed a sitting Fed governor in the central bank’s 113-year history. The Federal Reserve 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.
“Governor Cook has never committed mortgage fraud or any intentional wrongdoing, and there is no legally cognizable cause for removing her from the Federal Reserve Board,” Lowell wrote. The letter also argues that Trump and several of his own cabinet officials have signed the same kind of mortgage paperwork now being used against her.
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. The Supreme Court ruled in June that Trump did not have the power to dismiss Fed governors “for any reason, or no reason.” The court highlighted the importance of the Fed’s independence, but 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 had detailed the allegations against Cook, asserting that “at a minimum, this conduct was grossly negligent and demonstrates that you are unfit for the office.” Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor, has consistently denied the allegations against her.
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