President Trump signed a presidential memorandum on October 9 creating a new committee to investigate whether Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook made false statements in connection with at least one mortgage instrument. Depending on what the committee finds, Trump said, there may be grounds to remove her from the position.
Cook, 62, was appointed to the Federal Reserve in 2022 and confirmed by the Senate. The Federal Reserve is the nation’s central banking system, which means this whole situation carries a little more weight than your average Washington squabble over paperwork.
The committee is made up of Kevin Hassett, a Trump adviser; Keith Sonderling, acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics; and Andrea Lucas, chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A White House hearing to consider the evidence is scheduled for November 5, and Cook was invited to submit a written statement and can attend the hearing if she chooses. The committee can question her about anything she or her lawyers say and can request documents from her. Trump said Cook shall comply with such requests, which is a polite way of saying she doesn’t really have a choice.
This isn’t Trump’s first run at Cook. He tried firing her earlier in 2025, accusing her of “deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter.” That accusation stemmed from a criminal referral by William Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Lisa Cook mortgage allegations which alleged that Cook signed one document saying a Michigan property would be her primary residence for the coming year, then signed another document two weeks later saying a Georgia property would be her primary residence for the next 12 months. Two primary residences at once. Convenient, if you can pull it off.
The courts weren’t buying Trump’s earlier attempt to remove her, though. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, ruled against the administration, saying that removing Cook without sufficient cause would effectively turn a federally protected position into “at-will employment,” which he called “out of step with the statute Congress enacted and our Nation’s tradition of central banking protected from political interference.” So the Supreme Court put her back. Now Trump is building a formal record, which is a different play entirely.
Cook’s lawyers came out swinging after the new committee was announced. 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,” they said. A lawyer representing Cook did not respond to a request for comment at the time the memorandum was published.
The November 5 hearing will be the next big moment in this saga. If the committee finds cause for removal, expect another court battle that will make the last one look like a warm-up. Drop your thoughts in the comments or fire them off on social media.
