The White House is renewing its effort to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, according to a letter addressed to her attorney obtained by CNN. The letter, dated August 5, said there is “sufficient reason to believe that you have made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements,” and asked her to submit a written response to the allegations within 21 days.

Background

The Trump administration first raised the accusations last year, which prompted a Justice Department investigation. Cook has not been charged with a crime and has denied any wrongdoing. The Supreme Court in June ruled that Cook wasn’t given the opportunity to address the administration’s accusations of mortgage fraud when President Donald Trump announced her firing last year.

Cook’s attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, said in a statement, “These allegations are as baseless now as they were a year ago when President Trump tried to remove Governor Cook and interfere with the independence of the Federal Reserve.” In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Lowell said that “allegation doesn’t amount to cause” and that “there’s not a chance that Governor Cook committed mortgage fraud.”

Reaction

Trump has long berated the politically independent Fed because it hasn’t lowered interest rates to his liking, especially Cook and former Fed Chair Jerome Powell. But the president has spared the current chairman, Kevin Warsh, at a time when higher inflation is raising the odds of rate hikes.

Original reporting: WPBF West Palm Beach — read the source article.