President ramps up pressure on Cook to step down
President Trump said he intends to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, who’s at the center of a controversy over alleged mortgage fraud, if she doesn’t resign.
Trump had previously called for Cook to step down from her post after Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte referred her to the Department of Justice for potential fraud.
Speaking to reporters Friday, Trump ramped up pressure on the Fed governor, who denies all allegations of wrongdoing. “What she did was bad,” he said. “So I’ll fire her if she doesn’t resign.”
Pulte said in a letter to attorney general Pam Bondi and justice department official Ed Martin that Cook committed mortgage fraud by listing two separate properties as her primary residence at the same time. On Thursday, the justice department said it would investigate Cook.
Democrats including Senator Elizabeth Warren have criticized the move as a political one aimed at removing Cook from the Fed’s decision-making board and giving Trump the option to install a replacement whose views on rate policy match his own.
Cook sided with Fed chair Jerome Powell in last month’s decision to hold rates steady. Two governors, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, voted in favour of a 25-basis-point cut.
Adriana Kugler, another board member, unexpectedly resigned her seat at the beginning of August, allowing Trump to replace her with chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, Stephen Miran.
In a statement this week, Cook dismissed the idea of quitting. “I learned from the media that FHFA Director William Pulte posted on social media that he was making a criminal referral based on a mortgage application from four years ago, before I joined the Federal Reserve,” she said.
“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet. I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”
Trump has frequently been at loggerheads with the Fed this year over its decision to hold rates steady, resisting pressure from the president to cut.
The president and allies have frequently questioned spiraling renovation costs at the Fed’s headquarters, and Trump and Powell had a sharp exchange of views last month in front of cameras about that work.
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