Trump makes new push for court approval to fire Fed’s Lisa Cook

(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump on Sunday made a final push to sway a US appeals court to let him oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud before next week’s Fed vote on interest rates, again telling the court that she’s failed to dispute the claims.

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Trump last week asked the Washington-based appeals court to temporarily pause a lower court’s Sept. 9 injunction blocking him from firing Cook while her lawsuit challenging her dismissal proceeds. A ruling from the three-judge appellate panel could come as soon as later Sunday or Monday.

If the appeals court denies the Justice Department’s request for a so-called stay order, the president is likely to immediately ask the Supreme Court to intervene, setting up a series of last-ditch arguments with the justices by both sides before a highly anticipated Fed policy meeting Sept. 16-17.

Trump moved to fire Cook last month after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, one of the president’s most outspoken supporters, accused her of committing mortgage fraud. He alleged that she declared two homes in Georgia and Michigan as her primary residence in order to get better loan terms. The real estate transactions predated her time on the Fed.

Cook “has provided no explanation for the contradictory representations apparent on the face of her mortgage agreements, and that alone is grounds to stay the extraordinary” preliminary injunction, the Justice Department said in a filing Sunday afternoon.

Yet Trump’s new filing comes just days after revelations that Cook described the disputed Georgia property as a “vacation home,” according to documents viewed by Bloomberg News. The May 2021 loan estimate was issued by a credit union weeks before Cook purchased the home. The document shows she told the lender that the property wouldn’t be her primary residence.

The Justice Department’s filing did not address those revelations.

Cook’s lawyer Abbe Lowell made his final arguments against Trump’s stay request in a filing on Saturday, repeatedly contending that the Fed’s independence would be shattered if the court allowed the economist to be fired over unproven allegations with questionable motives.

“A stay by this court would therefore be the first signal from the courts that our system of government is no longer able to guarantee the independence of the Federal Reserve,” Lowell said. “Nothing would then stop the president from firing other members of the Board on similarly flimsy pretexts. The era of Fed independence would be over.”