On Sept. 15, a divided panel of federal judges ruled that the Biden appointee cannot be removed from office for the time being.
The Trump administration said on Sept. 16 that it will appeal a three-judge panel’s ruling that prevents the president from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
On Sept. 15, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2–1 to uphold a lower court’s preliminary injunction preventing Cook’s removal from the Fed’s board of governors while pending litigation plays out.
“The President lawfully removed Lisa Cook for cause,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told The Epoch Times.
“The Administration will appeal this decision and looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue,” he said.
It is unclear where the appeal will be filed. The federal government could ask the full D.C. Circuit to conduct an en banc hearing of all the active judges of the circuit, or it could skip over that stage and appeal directly to the Supreme Court.
The Epoch Times asked Desai to clarify his remarks, but no reply was received by publication time.
President Donald Trump fired Cook on Aug. 25—the first time a president has ever ended the tenure of a Fed governor—citing his authority under the Federal Reserve Act. He said in a letter he posted online that he determined there was “sufficient reason to believe [she] may have made false statements on one or more mortgage documents.”
Trump was referring to allegations that Cook committed mortgage fraud related to two properties she purchased before joining the Fed. The White House says the fraud allegations—which Cook denies—are serious enough that the president is allowed to oust Cook.
The letter said William Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, made a criminal referral on Aug. 15 about the mortgage allegations to Attorney General Pamela Bondi. A criminal referral is a formal recommendation by a government official to another to investigate or prosecute alleged criminal activity.
The referral states that Cook signed a document verifying that a property in Michigan would be her primary residence for the next year, but two weeks later, she signed another document saying a Georgia property would be her primary residence for the next year, according to Trump’s letter.
“It is inconceivable that you were not aware of your first commitment when making the second. It is impossible that you intended to honor both,” Trump told Cook in the letter.
“At a minimum, the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator.”
