Trump administration moves ahead with efforts to fire Federal Reserve
governor Lisa Cook
[August 08, 2026]
By ERIC TUCKER and PAUL WISEMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving ahead with its
efforts to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, two months after the
Supreme Court allowed her to retain her job while she fights the
president’s effort to terminate her over mortgage fraud allegations that
she has denied.
The justices in a 5-4 decision in June said Cook, who was nominated to
the Fed’s Board of Governors by President Joe Biden, could remain in her
post at least as long as her lawsuit challenging her firing goes on. The
Trump administration is appealing a lower-court ruling in Cook’s favor.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a footnote in his
opinion that nothing forbids President Donald Trump from “trying again”
to fire Cook provided she is given proper notice and a chance to contest
it. Trump indicated after the opinion that he would do just that, vowing
to “take appropriate action immediately.”
In a letter this week obtained by The Associated Press, White House aide
Dan Scavino told Cook that Trump was “considering removing you from your
position” but cited the Supreme Court's requirement of proper notice in
giving her until August 26 to challenge it.
The attempt to fire Cook is rooted in a criminal referral made last
August by Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance
Agency, that accused her of committing mortgage fraud by declaring two
different homes – one in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and one in Atlanta – as
“primary residence.’’ Homebuyers can get lower mortgage rates or smaller
down payments on their primary homes compared to second or vacation
homes.
Cook has aggressively defended herself against the allegations, saying
the president had attempted to oust her “on a manufactured pretext
because I refused to bow to political pressure and continued to set
interest rates based only on what would best serve the American
people.’’
Her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, argued in a November letter that Cook has
mostly lived in the Ann Arbor property since first purchasing it in
2005. As a result, it was accurate for her to refer to it as her
“primary residence” in a June 2021 application to refinance its
mortgage, the letter said.
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Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve Board of Governors member, speaks
during an event at the Brookings Institution, Nov. 3, 2025, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
A month later, she purchased a condominium in Atlanta and, in a July
2021 document, also referred to it as her “primary residence.”
Lowell said that it was an “isolated notation” that did not reflect
an intent to defraud. An earlier mortgage application to the same
lender in May 2021 had referred to the Atlanta condo as a “vacation
home,” Lowell said. Cook also referred to it as a second home in
federal filings during her confirmation process to become a Fed
governor.
The latest White House letter largely rehashes the year-old
allegations.
“These allegations are as baseless now as they were a year ago when
President Trump tried to remove Governor Cook and interfere with the
independence of the Federal Reserve,” Lowell said in a statement.
“No matter what President Trump tries to do next, this much is clear
under the facts and Supreme Court precedent — there is no valid
cause for removing Governor Cook. As we did before, we will
challenge this latest pretext and preserve her position and the
historic role of the Fed,” he added.
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