Aug. 27 (UPI) — Attorneys for Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, told the White House in a letter that President Donald Trump has “no legal basis” to fire her.
The letter sent by attorneys Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen on Wednesday argued that the grounds Trump has sought Cook’s removal for do not rise to the level of justifying being fired.
Cook has been accused of committing mortgage fraud for incorrectly listing a property as a vacation home, which she said was done in error.
“An inadvertent error is not fraud, as the President and a third of his cabinet should know because they reportedly did the same thing,” Cook’s attorneys said in a statement. “These attacks on Governor Cook are not about real estate paperwork; they are an attempt by President Trump to force the Federal Reserve to bend to his will.”
In his second term, Trump has targeted Cook and former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for removal as he presses the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. The Federal Reserve’s status as an independent agency is critical to its function, so as to avoid political influence in monetary policy.
Trump’s efforts to remove Cook date back a year since. Cook filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration and won in court when Trump attempted to dismiss her last August. The Supreme Court blocked the president from removing Cook, ruling that Cook was denied due process when the administration did not demonstrate the cause of her removal.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling Cook was entitled to at least “some explanation of the evidence at issue, some venue for a response, and a deadline by which a response would be due.”
Earlier this month, Dan Scavino, a White House deputy chief of staff, wrote a letter to the court again asking that the administration be allowed to dismiss Cook.
