Lisa Cook, one of seven Federal Reserve Board members, was fired «for cause» by President Trump for what he calls «deceitful and potentially criminal conduct.»
She’s cooked: Lisa Cook, one of seven Federal Reserve Board members, was fired «for cause» by President Donald Trump earlier this week for what he calls «deceitful and potentially criminal conduct.» The claim is that she committed mortgage fraud by declaring two residences to be her primary (and thus tax-advantaged), purchased within a few weeks of each other—sloppy, and somewhat common, and also not something that’s been proven as of now. Cook is suing. The rest of the Federal Reserve Board is left wondering how exactly they should handle this situation: Does Cook still have a job? How long will it take this lawsuit to wend its way through the courts? Do you adhere to Trump’s dictates whenever they’re issued? How legal is this for-cause firing anyway?
«Does ‘for cause’ require something more substantial than a mere allegation of wrongdoing, such as a formal charge, or a conviction, or even something else?» asks Reason’s Damon Root in a great piece on the precedent the Supreme Court might lean on (Namely Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935) and Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (2020)). «Here’s another question to ask: Is the mortgage fraud allegation that’s been leveled against Cook merely a pretext designed to cover the fact that Trump is actually firing Cook for illegal political reasons?»
Vice President J.D. Vance has been out there working overtime to spin it. «The question is: Do we want a person who makes a mistake like that to be a person who sits on the Federal Reserve Board, which makes important monetary policy for the entire country?» asked the vice president in an interview with USA Today. «Whether it’s criminal, whether it’s intentional or not, we know that this is a person, I think, who doesn’t meet the standard that we should expect for the Federal Reserve, which is why the president fired her and he does have the legal right to fire her.»
«I don’t think we allow bureaucrats to make decisions about monetary policy and interest rates without any input from the people that were elected to serve the American people», he added.
