Trump accused of ‘cobbling together’ mortgage fraud allegations to fire Lisa Cook
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Donald Trump has been accused of “cobbling together” allegations to fire Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook.
The president said she would lose her job over allegations she committed mortgage fraud – an extraordinary move that marks the latest escalation in Trump’s attack on the central bank’s independence.
Trump wrote to Cook on Monday, telling her that he was removing her from her position “effective immediately”, based on the allegation from one of his allies that she had obtained a mortgage on a second home she incorrectly described as her primary residence.
Top Democrat on the US House of Representatives committee on financial services Maxine Waters said Trump’s attack on Cook was a clear continuation of his ongoing effort to “undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve” and deflect attention to signs of economic challenges caused by his policies. Waters said:
Their latest target is Dr Lisa Cook, a highly qualified, trailblazing economist, and the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors since Congress created it in 1913.
Let me be very clear, the allegations against Dr Cook have been cobbled together as a pretext to try to replace her with someone who will be loyal first to Trump instead of the US Constitution or US law.
Cook responded several hours later in a statement emailed to reporters through the law office of the lawyer Abbe Lowell, saying of Trump that “no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority” to remove her from the job to which she was appointed by Joe Biden in 2022.
She said:
I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy.
Lowell said Trump’s “demands lacked any proper process, basis or legal authority”, adding:
We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action.
Trump posted the full text of the letter on social media on Monday night. In it, he said that he found “sufficient cause” in the allegation against her to remove her from her position.
Meanwhile, top Democratic lawmakers furiously denounced Trump’s attempt to fire Cook. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator and ranking member on the Senate banking, housing, and urban affairs committee, called it “the latest example of a desperate president searching for a scapegoat to cover for his own failure to lower costs for Americans”.
“It’s an authoritarian power grab that blatantly violates the Federal Reserve Act, and must be overturned in court,” Warren said.
Read our full report here:
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California Republicans went to court to challenge a plan devised by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, to redraw congressional boundaries in response to a redistricting plan that aims to give Republicans in Texas five more US House seats.
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Key events
The Trump administration’s attack on Lisa Cook’s future at the Fed was led by Bill Pulte, a Trump-appointed official leading the US Federal Housing Finance Agency, who alleged she had claimed two different properties were her primary residences when obtaining mortgages in 2021.
“How can this woman be in charge of interest rates if she is allegedly lying to help her own interest rates?” Pulte wrote on X, formerly Twitter. He referred the case to the Department of Justice for investigation.
Trump seized on the claims before Cook had responded, writing on Wednesday on Truth Social, his social network, that she “must resign, now!!!”.
The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, criticised Trump’s move against Cook. “Donald Trump is playing a dangerous game of Jenga with a key pillar of our economy,” he said.
“This brazen power grab must be stopped by the courts before Trump does permanent damage to national, state and local economies. And if the economy comes crashing down, if families lose their savings and Main Street pays the price, Donald Trump will own every ounce of the wreckage and devastation families feel.”
Trump accused of ‘cobbling together’ mortgage fraud allegations to fire Lisa Cook
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Donald Trump has been accused of “cobbling together” allegations to fire Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook.
The president said she would lose her job over allegations she committed mortgage fraud – an extraordinary move that marks the latest escalation in Trump’s attack on the central bank’s independence.
Trump wrote to Cook on Monday, telling her that he was removing her from her position “effective immediately”, based on the allegation from one of his allies that she had obtained a mortgage on a second home she incorrectly described as her primary residence.
Top Democrat on the US House of Representatives committee on financial services Maxine Waters said Trump’s attack on Cook was a clear continuation of his ongoing effort to “undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve” and deflect attention to signs of economic challenges caused by his policies. Waters said:
Their latest target is Dr Lisa Cook, a highly qualified, trailblazing economist, and the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors since Congress created it in 1913.
Let me be very clear, the allegations against Dr Cook have been cobbled together as a pretext to try to replace her with someone who will be loyal first to Trump instead of the US Constitution or US law.
Cook responded several hours later in a statement emailed to reporters through the law office of the lawyer Abbe Lowell, saying of Trump that “no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority” to remove her from the job to which she was appointed by Joe Biden in 2022.
She said:
I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy.
Lowell said Trump’s “demands lacked any proper process, basis or legal authority”, adding:
We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action.
Trump posted the full text of the letter on social media on Monday night. In it, he said that he found “sufficient cause” in the allegation against her to remove her from her position.
Meanwhile, top Democratic lawmakers furiously denounced Trump’s attempt to fire Cook. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator and ranking member on the Senate banking, housing, and urban affairs committee, called it “the latest example of a desperate president searching for a scapegoat to cover for his own failure to lower costs for Americans”.
“It’s an authoritarian power grab that blatantly violates the Federal Reserve Act, and must be overturned in court,” Warren said.
Read our full report here:
In other developments:
-
Unprompted, Trump said three times that he plans to rebrand the “Department of Defense” by returning to the pre-1947 name, the “Department of War”.
-
In a court filing, the Trump administration said that it intends to withdraw federal approval for an offshore wind farm off the coasts of Maryland and Delaware.
-
A large bruise on the back on Trump’s right hand, which the president appeared to be hiding, poorly, under a daub of makeup last week, was clearly visible during public appearances, renewing speculation that the White House might be concealing information about his health.
-
California Republicans went to court to challenge a plan devised by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, to redraw congressional boundaries in response to a redistricting plan that aims to give Republicans in Texas five more US House seats.
-
Video recorded for a Fox News streaming documentary about Trump proves that the president lied when he told reporters that Maryland’s governor, Wes Moore, had hugged and praised him at the Army-Navy football game in December.
-
The Utah legislature will need to rapidly redraw the state’s congressional boundaries after a judge ruled Monday that the Republican-controlled body drew them in violation of voters’ rights.
