Trump fires Biden Fed governor for possible ‘criminal conduct’ — but Lisa Cook is desperate to cling to power

President Donald Trump informed Lisa Cook on Monday that her time on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has come to an end.

The Biden-nominated governor did not handle the news well, indicating that she will challenge the president’s authority to remove executive branch employees, setting the stage for a legal battle that could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The president’s recent successes in similar battles over removals of high-level bureaucrats and his ability to fire Federal Reserve board members “for cause” bodes poorly for Cook, who may soon also face criminal charges.

Quick background

Former President Joe Biden nominated Cook, a race-obsessed economist who served on Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, to join the Federal Reserve’s board of governors in January 2021.

Critics largely opposed her nomination because of her leftist worldview and her relative lack of experience.

“There’s very little on Dr. Cook’s CV to suggest she knows the ins and outs of monetary policy,” economics professor Alexander William Salter noted ahead of Cook’s confirmation in May 2022. “During her nomination hearing on February 3, she listed one promising qualification: election to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. But this happened less than a month prior, on January 13 (effective January 1)! Nobody is this quick a study.”

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Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“Professor Cook has no proven expertise in monetary economics at all, much less fighting inflation,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said prior to Cook’s confirmation vote. “Professor Cook is a proven partisan who has promoted left-wing conspiracy theories and called for a fellow academic to be fired because that person did not support defunding the police.”

Cook ultimately squeaked through the confirmation process with the help of a tie-breaking vote from then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Housing crisis

Earlier this month, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte sent a criminal referral for Cook to the Justice Department.

Pulte told Attorney General Pam Bondi in an Aug. 15 letter that mortgage documents appear to indicate that Cook “has falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute.”

‘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.’

“This has included falsifying residence statuses for an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based residence and an Atlanta, Georgia-based property in order to potentially secure lower interest rates and more favorable loan terms,” continued Pulte.

Two weeks after taking out a 15-year mortgage agreement for $203,000 on the Michigan property, Cook purchased a condominium in Atlanta and entered into a 30-year mortgage agreement for $540,000. According to Pulte, Biden’s Fed governor allegedly listed both residences as her primary.

A CNN review of the mortgage documents found that both properties were indeed listed as Cook’s principal residence.

Eviction

President Trump evidently took the allegations very seriously, noting in an Aug. 25 letter to Cook that he shared on Truth Social that “it is inconceivable that you were not aware of your first commitment when making the second. It is impossible that you intended to honor both.”

“The Federal Reserve has tremendous responsibility for setting interest rates and regulating reserve and member banks,” wrote Trump. “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.”

The president suggested that neither he nor the American people have confidence in Cook’s integrity in light of her alleged “deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter.”

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Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump stated, “Pursuant to my authority under Article II of the Constitution of the United States and the Federal Reserve Act of 1912, as amended, you are hereby removed from your position on the Board of the Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately.”

In response to the firing — reportedly the first time a president has canned or attempted to can a sitting Federal Reserve governor — Pulte thanked Trump for his “commitment to stopping mortgage fraud and following the law.”

Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.

The Federal Reserve declined to comment on the development.

Clinging to power

Echoing other presidential appointees who are now out of work, Cook suggested President Trump lacked the authority to give her the boot.

“President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022,” said Cook in a statement obtained by Politico.

The fired Fed governor’s attorney Abbe Lowell — who has also served as an attorney for pardoned felon Hunter Biden and New York Attorney General Letitia James — stated, “President Trump has taken to social media to once again ‘fire by tweet’ and once again his reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis or legal authority,” adding that “we will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action.”

The law firm Lex Politica indicated days ahead of Trump’s announcement that “President Trump clearly has authority to remove Governor Cook ‘for cause,’ assuming the allegations of mortgage fraud or lying on federal ethics forms are confirmed.”

The Federal Reserve Act states that each member of the Fed’s Board of Governors “shall hold office for a term of fourteen years from the expiration of the term of his predecessor, unless sooner removed for cause by the President.”

The firm noted further that while the DOJ’s investigation of Cook’s alleged conduct and any charges it might bring against her “further support removal for cause … we do not believe that an indictment is necessary before the President may remove Governor Cook ‘for cause’ under the Federal Reserve Act.”

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​Federal reserve, Fed, Lisa cook, Donald trump, Fired, Termination, Layoff, Business, Treasures, Winning, Politics 

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