Trump Bid to Fire Cook Before Fed Rates Meeting Blocked by Court

The high-stakes showdown between the Trump administration and the US central bank intensified Monday as an appeals court blocked the White House from removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her post for now.

The divided court in Washington affirmed that Cook can continue working while her lawsuit challenging Trump’s move to dismiss her proceeds. The 2-1 ruling came just hours before the start of the Fed’s highly anticipated Sept. 16-17 meeting to vote on interest rates.

While the decision makes it more likely the embattled economist will attend, President Donald Trump could still ask the Supreme Court to step in.

Lisa Cook

Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

As Cook fights to stay in her position, Trump’s economic adviser Stephen Miran is on his way to joining the Federal Reserve board after the Senate confirmed him to the post in a vote Monday evening. He’ll fill a seat recently vacated by former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler.

Republicans fast-tracked approval of Miran’s nomination with Trump pressuring the central bank to cut interest rates.

Investors and economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect Fed officials to lower rates by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday. Undeterred, Trump predicted a “big cut” from the central bank.

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Cook sued Trump last month after the president moved to oust her over allegations of mortgage fraud, which she denies. The lawsuit has emerged as a major flash-point in the growing clash between the White House and the Fed, which has resisted Trump’s demands to lower interest rates.

US District Judge Jia Cobb on Sept. 9 ruled that Cook could remain on the job as her case proceeded, saying that Trump’s attempt to oust her likely violated the law. The appeals court decision allows that ruling to stand for now.

The Justice Department released a statement that it “does not comment on current or prospective litigation including matters that may be an investigation.” The Fed declined to comment. Representatives of Cook and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Fed hasn’t taken a side in the legal fight over Trump’s attempt to oust Cook and has said it will respect the court’s decision.

Read More: Miran Wins Fed Post Confirmation as Senate Backs Trump Pick

DC Circuit Judges J. Michelle Childs and Bradley Garcia, both appointed by former President Joe Biden, voted to reject the administration’s request to let Trump remove Cook from her position while the case goes forward. Judge Greg Katsas, appointed by Trump in his first term, dissented.

The court held that the district judge was correct to find that Trump likely violated Cook’s due process rights by attempting to fire her via a social media post.

‘Minimal Process’

“In this court, the government does not dispute that it failed to provide Cook even minimal process — that is, notice of the allegation against her and a meaningful opportunity to respond — before she was purportedly removed,” Garcia, joined by Childs, wrote.

Garcia wrote that he believed Cook was at least likely to win on her claim that Trump and other US officials who played a role in trying to oust her failed to provide her with due process — enough notice and an opportunity to object. Garcia didn’t address the lower court judge’s other finding that Trump’s purported reasons for trying to fire Cook failed to meet the standard of “cause” required to remove a Fed governor under US law.

Garcia also wrote that siding with Trump at this stage would be far more disruptive, given the fact that Cook had continued to perform her duties up until now. Garcia said the government had modern due process precedent “stacked against it.”

Katsas said that he didn’t believe a stay was warranted because the alleged harm to Cook wasn’t irreparable. He said she could always get her back pay returned to her if she ended up ultimately winning the case.

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Trump said last month he was firing Cook after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte accused her of fraudulently listing homes in Michigan and Georgia as a “primary residence” when she obtained mortgages in 2021 to secure more favorable terms on loans. Pulte later added a claim involving a third mortgage in Massachusetts.

Mortgage Claims

Cook’s lawyer Abbe Lowell said in a filing last week that any ruling that threatens her attendance at the Fed meeting would “potentially plunge” the board’s vote “into turmoil” and would have “the real potential of impacting domestic and foreign markets.”

The judges didn’t address the underlying claims of mortgage fraud against Cook, and also did not reference reports over the weekend that loan documents for Cook’s Georgia home appear to contradict Pulte’s claim, showing that she told the lender the property was a vacation home.

Read More: Fed’s Cook Called Atlanta Property a Vacation Home, Records Show

Pulte pointed out in a social media post that the ruling is “for now.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, hailed the ruling for “rejecting Donald Trump’s illegal attempt to take over the Fed so he can scapegoat away his failure to lower costs for American families.”

“If the courts – including the Supreme Court – continue to uphold the law, Lisa Cook will keep her seat as a Fed Governor,” she said.

(Updates with Fed position on lawsuit in tenth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Christopher Condon, Amara Omeokwe and Sara Forden.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net;
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Peter Blumberg, Elizabeth Wasserman

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