Fed Governor Lisa Cook Sues Trump Over ‘Unprecedented and Illegal’ Firing

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook filed suit against President Donald Trump on Thursday to challenge her unprecedented firing from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors.

Trump fired Cook on Monday, marking the first time a president has tried to fire a member of the politically independent central bank. In addition to Trump, the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, are also listed as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. Court for the District of Columbia.

Under the law, the president can only fire Fed officials “for cause.” When he moved to fire Cook, Trump cited a “criminal referral” from the director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, who alleged Cook had committed mortgage fraud.

But Cook has neither been charged with nor convicted of a crime, as her attorney, Abbe Lowell, pointed out in the lawsuit — and Cook wants an “emergency temporary restraining order,” so she can remain in her position until “the Court can further consider the merits of her claims.”

“This case challenges President Trump’s unprecedented and illegal attempt to remove Governor Cook from her position which, if allowed to occur, would [be] the first of its kind in the Board’s history,” Lowell wrote in the lawsuit.

Firing Cook “would subvert the Federal Reserve Act ... which explicitly requires a showing of ‘cause’ for a Governor’s removal, which an unsubstantiated allegation about private mortgage applications submitted by Governor Cook prior to her Senate confirmation is not,” Lowell wrote.

The “for cause” protection has been the “bulwark of the Federal Reserve’s independence for the past century,” Lowell added, defining cause to mean “instances of inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance in office, or comparable misconduct.”

White House spokesperson Kush Desai told NOTUS the president was exercising his “lawful authority” and cited the law allowing the president to remove a Fed official “for cause.”

“The president determined there was cause to remove a governor who was credibly accused of lying in financial documents from a highly sensitive position overseeing financial institutions,” Desai said. “The removal of a governor for cause improves the Federal Reserve Board’s accountability and credibility for both the markets and American people.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down during a press conference Thursday when asked about the level of due process in Cook’s firing.

“You had these mortgage receipts very clearly shown to the President, and he has the cause that he needs to fire this individual,” Leavitt said. “He laid it out in the letter that he provided to her and to the public as well, and so we’ll continue to fight this battle.”

The Fed declined to comment.

This story has been updated with a comment from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.