As part of a renewed effort to remove Lisa Cook as a governor of the Federal Reserve, the Trump administration gave her 21 days to respond to allegations of mortgage fraud.
A letter said Cook was required to submit her response by August 26 and that Trump would make the final decision. The notification was prepared in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.
Supreme Court halted previous proceedings
The Trump administration’s latest move came after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked its initial effort to remove Cook earlier this year. The court concluded that the proceedings had failed to meet the necessary procedural requirements because Cook had not been notified in advance or given an opportunity to respond.
The new letter repeated the mortgage fraud allegations previously raised. The White House argued that the allegations constituted valid grounds for removal and had undermined public confidence in the Federal Reserve.
Cook’s lawyers rejected the allegations
The letter also claimed that Cook had been aware of the allegations since at least August 25, 2025. It said she had failed to respond to serious allegations despite more than 10 months having passed.
Cook’s lawyers, Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, rejected the allegations, arguing that they were baseless. The lawyers said, as in the initial removal effort a year earlier, that the new allegations were intended to interfere with the Federal Reserve’s independence.
Lowell and Eisen said that the existing facts and Supreme Court precedents did not establish valid grounds for removing Cook. They announced that they would challenge the new effort to protect Cook’s position and the Federal Reserve’s historic role.
