WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump will summon Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to the White House for a hearing on his administration's allegations she made false statements in connection with her mortgages, escalating his bid to fire her just weeks ahead of elections that will determine if Trump's Republican Party maintains control of Congress.
Trump has been trying to fire Cook for more than a year as he moves in unprecedented ways to exert more control over a central bank
he views as refusing for political reasons to lower interest rates as he wants. Lawyers for Cook said on Friday any fair hearing would show there is no legal basis for firing her.
"As President, it is my job to ensure the laws are faithfully executed, including by firing subordinates who cannot be trusted to tell the truth and follow the law," Trump said in a notice on the White House website on Friday.
"To assist me in carrying out that responsibility, the Committee shall investigate the allegations against Governor Cook and report to me whether there is 'cause' for Governor Cook’s removal," according to the notice, dated October 7.
The committee will hold a closed, in-person hearing at the White House "to consider the evidence and allegations against Governor Cook," the presidential memorandum said. Members of the committee, its representatives, or Department of Justice personnel will question her for "no longer than four hours."
If the hearing is "anything close to objective, the conclusion will be that Governor Cook did not commit mortgage fraud, leaving no cause to remove her from the Federal Reserve Board," Cook's lawyers Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen said in a statement. "Governor Cook welcomes the opportunity to present the facts so she can clear her name and demonstrate there is no legal basis to fire her.”
They said they had engaged with the White House about the process.
Trump first tried to fire Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the central bank's board, in August 2025. No president has ever tried to fire a sitting Fed governor before. Central banks are widely seen as needing political independence to ensure their ability to fight inflation as needed.
The case led to the US Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that the president could not remove a Fed governor without adequate cause and needed to follow a clear process to lay out the reasons and provide evidence.
The ruling left Cook in her position but kicked the case against her back to a federal district court.
Cook was appointed to the Fed board in 2022 by former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and was reappointed in 2023 to a term that lasts until 2038.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Editing by Rod Nickel and Sanjeev Miglani)
