Fed official gives dire new warning that Supreme Court could make agency 'subservient'
Lawyers representing embattled Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook argued in a filing to the Supreme Court on Thursday that President Donald Trump's attempts to remove her over "unproven allegations" risk doing irreparable harm to the body, according to a new report.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Cook's lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to prevent the president from firing Cook. The Trump administration has accused Cook of committing mortgage fraud before she joined the Federal Reserve. Multiple media outlets have reported that Trump administration officials have made similar transactions as Cook and were not accused of wrongdoing.
Bowing to Trump's efforts "would dramatically alter the status quo, ignore centuries of history, and transform the Federal Reserve into a body subservient to the President’s will,” Cook's lawyers argued, according to the report.
“The bottom line is this: Contrary to the President’s boundless assertion of authority, there must be some meaningful check on the President’s ability to remove Governor Cook. Otherwise, any president could remove any governor based on any charge of wrongdoing, however flawed,” Cook's lawyers argued.
The filing comes at a time when the Trump administration is going after multiple political foes over allegations of mortgage fraud. Cook, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) have all been alleged to have committed mortgage fraud. Each of them has denied the allegations.