Trump launches new effort to oust Fed Governor Lisa Cook

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President Donald Trump is mounting a fresh offensive in his battle to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, forming a committee of his own appointees to investigate allegations against her.

The committee will investigate alleged false statements Cook made in connection with mortgages on two properties and hold an in-person hearing at the White House on November 5, the White House announced on Friday.

Analysts say the formation of the committee and setting of a hearing date indicate Trump officials are addressing procedural issues addressed by a June Supreme Court ruling that initially blocked the administration from removing Cook.

Newly installed Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, who is also serving as acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, is one of the three members. So is National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, a staunch defender of Trump’s economic agenda, whom the president considered for Fed chair. The third member is Andrea Lucas, chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Cook’s attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, said they have been in touch with the White House “to evaluate whether the process proposed has a possibility of being a genuine one and not simply a box-checking exercise.”

“Governor Cook welcomes the opportunity to present the facts so she can clear her name and demonstrate there is no legal basis to fire her,” they said in a statement provided to CNN on Friday.

The formation of the committee marks the latest salvo in Trump’s ongoing attempts to reshape the Fed and comes just weeks ahead of its next monetary policy meeting, where officials will consider whether interest rate changes are merited.

“This seems tailor-made to address the Supreme Court’s biggest criticism in its last attempt: that Governor Cook didn’t have a chance to defend herself,” said Tim Mahedy, a former official at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, who is now CEO of research firm Access/Macro.

Mahedy said the outcome of this review “is clear” given the makeup of the committee. He expressed surprise that Hassett, a White House economist, would be on a committee investigating a legal matter about paperwork.

Trump lashes out after Fed raises rates, signals more to come

Trump has long berated the politically independent Fed because it hasn’t lowered interest rates to his liking, publicly targeting Cook and former Fed Chair Jerome Powell. But Trump has spared the current chairman, Kevin Warsh, whom he appointed to the position earlier this year after Powell’s term at the head of the central bank expired. Instead, Trump has insisted that Warsh is blocked by a “political” Board of Governors.

The central bank’s eight-member Board votes on interest rate decisions, along with regional Fed presidents. While the Fed leader often plays an influential role in shaping the discussion on policy moves, decisions are ultimately the result of the 12-person committee process.

At its September meeting, all 12 members, including Warsh, voted to raise rates for the first time in three years in an effort to contain inflation that has heated up largely due to the US war with Iran.

Trump said later that Warsh shouldn’t have greenlit a rate hike. “I don’t blame Kevin Warsh. I probably would have voted against the Board if I were him,” Trump said in an interview Time Magazine published earlier this month.

Separately, Trump reaffirmed he wants Warsh to “vote the way he wants.”

Trump previously sought to fire Cook over unproven allegations of mortgage fraud. Ultimately, in a 5-4 decision earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled Trump could not immediately remove her.

“The 5-4 Supreme Court decision did not prohibit President Trump from firing a Fed Governor, it gave him a roadmap to do it,” Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst at Raymond James, told CNN in an email.

Lisa Cook’s attorney responds to Trump's efforts to fire her

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion released in June that Cook was entitled to sufficient time and notice to respond to a termination and that she wasn’t given a fair opportunity to respond last year when Trump initially sought to remove her.

But that doesn’t mean Trump can’t lawfully fire her, he said. The law allows a president to remove Fed governors “for cause,” which is generally interpreted to mean negligence or malfeasance in the role.

The “ultimate question of whether the presi­dent can remove Cook for cause will depend in part on the underlying facts,” Roberts wrote. “We have not addressed the facts, as they have yet to be found or analyzed under the relevant legal standards.”

Mills said Cook is “very clearly at risk of being fired, and it is unclear if the Supreme Court would block President Trump in Round 2.”

He added that two of Cook’s colleagues, Powell and Governor Michael Barr, are also on the list for “potential ‘for-cause’ firing.”

Kurt Lewis, a former special adviser to Powell who is now head of central bank policy at Piper Sandler, said this will ultimately come down to how much deference the Supreme Court gives the president on “cause” once justices think he has “followed a semblance of procedure.”

Cook was appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2022 and is the first Black female Fed governor, with a term set to expire in 2038.

This story has been updated with additional content.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

唐纳德·特朗普总统正发起新一轮攻势，试图罢免美联储理事丽莎·库克，他组建了一个由自己任命的委员会来调查针对她的指控。

白宫周五宣布，委员会将调查库克涉嫌就两处房产抵押贷款所作的虚假陈述，并于 11 月 5 日在白宫举行现场听证会。

分析人士表示，委员会的成立和听证日期的确定表明，特朗普政府官员正在解决最高法院 6 月份的一项裁决所涉及的程序性问题，该裁决最初阻止了政府罢免库克。

新上任的劳工部长基思·桑德林（Keith Sonderling）同时也是政府道德办公室的代理主任，他是三位成员之一。另一位是国家经济委员会主任凯文·哈塞特（Kevin Hassett），他是特朗普经济政策的坚定拥护者，特朗普曾考虑让他担任美联储主席。第三位成员是平等就业机会委员会主席安德里亚·卢卡斯（Andrea Lucas）。

库克的律师艾比·洛厄尔和诺姆·艾森表示，他们已经与白宫联系，“以评估所提出的程序是否有可能是一个真正的程序，而不仅仅是走过场。”

“库克州长欢迎有机会陈述事实，以澄清自己的清白，并证明解雇她没有任何法律依据，”他们在周五提供给 CNN 的一份声明中说。

该委员会的成立标志着特朗普持续试图重塑美联储的最新举措，距离美联储下一次货币政策会议仅几周时间，届时官员们将考虑是否有必要调整利率。

“这似乎是专门为了回应最高法院上次尝试中最大的批评而量身定制的：即库克州长没有机会为自己辩护，”旧金山联邦储备银行前官员、现任研究公司 Access/Macro 首席执行官蒂姆·马赫迪 (Tim Mahedy) 说。

马赫迪表示，鉴于委员会的组成，此次审查的结果“显而易见”。他对白宫经济学家哈塞特竟然会参与调查文书工作相关法律问题的委员会感到惊讶。

美联储加息后，特朗普猛烈抨击，并暗示未来可能还会加息。

长期以来，特朗普一直抨击政治上独立的美联储，因为美联储没有按照他的意愿降低利率，他曾公开指责库克和前美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔。但特朗普却对现任主席凯文·沃什网开一面，沃什是他今年早些时候在鲍威尔任期结束后任命的。相反，特朗普坚称沃什受到“政治化”的理事会的阻挠。

央行八人理事会与各地区联储主席共同投票决定利率政策。虽然美联储主席在政策讨论中往往发挥着重要作用，但最终的决定是由十二人委员会共同做出的。

在 9 月份的会议上，包括沃什在内的所有 12 名成员投票决定三年来首次提高利率，以遏制因美国与伊朗的战争而加剧的通货膨胀。

特朗普后来表示，沃什不应该批准加息。“我不怪凯文·沃什。如果我是他，我可能也会投反对票，”特朗普在本月初发表于《时代》杂志的采访中说道。

另外，特朗普重申，他希望沃什“按照他自己的意愿投票”。

特朗普此前曾试图以未经证实的抵押贷款欺诈指控解雇库克。最终，最高法院在今年早些时候以5比4的投票结果裁定，特朗普不能立即解雇她。

“最高法院以 5 比 4 的裁决并没有阻止特朗普总统解雇美联储理事，而是为他提供了解雇的路线图，”雷蒙德·詹姆斯公司华盛顿政策分析师埃德·米尔斯在给 CNN 的电子邮件中表示。

丽莎·库克的律师回应了特朗普试图解雇她的举动。

首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨在 6 月份发布的多数意见中写道，库克有权获得足够的时间和通知来回应解雇，而且去年特朗普最初试图解雇她时，她没有得到公平的回应机会。

但他表示，这并不意味着特朗普不能合法解雇她。法律允许总统“因故”罢免美联储理事，而“因故”通常被解释为玩忽职守或渎职。

罗伯茨写道：“总统能否以正当理由罢免库克，最终将在一定程度上取决于事实真相。我们尚未讨论这些事实，因为它们尚未被发现，也未根据相关的法律标准进行分析。”

米尔斯表示，库克“显然面临被解雇的风险，目前还不清楚最高法院是否会在第二轮中阻止特朗普总统的决定。”

他还补充说，库克的两位同事鲍威尔和州长迈克尔·巴尔也在“可能因故解雇”的名单上。

鲍威尔的前特别顾问、现任 Piper Sandler 央行政策主管库尔特·刘易斯表示，这最终将取决于最高法院在认为总统“遵循了某种程序”后，对总统的“理由”给予多大的尊重。

库克于 2022 年由前总统乔·拜登任命，是美联储首位黑人女理事，任期至 2038 年。

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