WASHINGTON— The White House is renewing its effort to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, according to a letter addressed to her attorney obtained by CNN.
The letter, dated August 5, said there is “sufficient reason to believe that you have made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements,” and asked her to submit a written response to the allegations within 21 days. The Trump administration first raised the accusations last year, which prompted a Justice Department investigation. Cook has not been charged with a crime and has denied any wrongdoing.
ABC News was the first to report on the letter.
Over the past 24 hours, Trump has pushed against two major Supreme Court rulings against him: The Cook case and the birthright citizenship case. On Thursday, Trump signed executive orders limiting so-called birth tourism and birthright citizenship, CNN noted.
What Supreme Court Said
As the CU Daily reported earlier, the Supreme Court in June ruled that Cook wasn’t given the opportunity to address the administration’s accusations of mortgage fraud when President Donald Trump announced her firing last year. However, the ruling was narrow in scope as it did not determine there was enough cause to remove Cook based on the fraud allegations.
“These allegations are as baseless now as they were a year ago when President Trump tried to remove Governor Cook and interfere with the independence of the Federal Reserve,” Cook’s attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, said in a statement. “No matter what President Trump tries to do next, this much is clear under the facts and Supreme Court precedent — there is no valid cause for removing Governor Cook.”
“As we did before, we will challenge this latest pretext and preserve her position and the historic role of the Fed,” they wrote.
