Trump's week in review: Targeting cash bail, firing Lisa Cook
3. Trump fires Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, prompting a lawsuit
In a post on Truth Social Monday, Trump shared a letter he sent to Lisa Cook, a member of the board of governors for the U.S. Federal Reserve. Trump informed Cook that he was removing her from her position “effective immediately.”
Trump cited a criminal referral presented to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Aug. 15, alleging that Cook made “false statements on one or more mortgage agreements” as the justification for his decision to remove her from her position. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Cook signed a document stating that a property in Michigan would serve as her primary residence, while in a separate document signed two weeks later, she attested that a property in Georgia would be her primary residence.
“The Federal Reserve has tremendous responsibility for setting interest rates and regulating reserve and member banks,” Trump wrote. “The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve. In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter, they cannot and I do not have such confidence in your integrity.”
While Trump maintained that he had the authority to fire Cook under Article II of the Constitution and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, Cook filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Thursday accusing Trump of engaging in “illegal” behavior and violating her “Fifth Amendment due process rights and her statutory right to a notice and a hearing under the FRA.”
The complaint contends that Trump did not have any cause to fire her because her purported misconduct occurred before her tenure at the Federal Reserve.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
