Attorneys for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook are denying allegations that the key Fed official committed mortgage fraud.
In a Tuesday filing, Cook’s attorneys submitted additional arguments in support of a request for a temporary restraining order that would block President Donald Trump’s attempt to oust a key member of the Federal Reserve.
The attorneys said in the 31-page filing that Cook didn’t receive proper due process, including an opportunity to address the allegations made against her, and the justification for her firing wouldn’t rise to the level of “for cause” removal.
“Setting aside the fact that Governor Cook did not ever commit mortgage fraud, any such pre-office offense plainly would not have been ‘so infamous a nature, as to render the offender unfit to execute any public franchise,'” the attorneys wrote.
A White House spokesperson and attorneys for Cook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On August 20, Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, published a letter on X that accused Cook of falsifying bank documents and property records to secure a “more favorable” mortgage. In particular, Pulte says Cook improperly designated which of her homes served as a primary and secondary place of residence while filing paperwork for a home loan application.
Cook’s attorneys said in the Tuesday filing that Trump then called for Cook’s removal on his Truth Social account half an hour after Pulte’s social media post.
“Governor Cook learned of these developments only through the grapevine — no government official gave her notice of these Truth Social posts,” the attorneys said.
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Cook’s attorneys called the claims “alleged facial inconsistencies” that were already disclosed to the government during the vetting and confirmation process. Cook was nominated by former President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2022.
Those alleged inconsistencies, attorneys wrote, do not rise to the level of “for cause,” citing Humphrey’s Executor, a 1935 landmark Supreme Court case that established how a sitting US president cannot fire officials of an independent agency based on policy or political differences.
On August 25, Trump posted a termination letter on Truth Social that was addressed to Cook, calling for her “immediate removal from office.”
Cook responded in a statement, saying, “President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so.”
For months, Trump has been pressuring the Fed to lower interest rates as the board continues to keep rates steady. The president has resorted to personal attacks against Fed Chair Jerome Powell, calling the top Fed official a “stubborn MORON.”
During his closely-watched remarks in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Powell indicated that the Fed was leaning toward a 25-basis-point rate cut in September.
