Despite being protected by a recent Supreme Court ruling protecting her position, the only Black woman on the Federal Reserve Board is still being targeted for removal by Trump. The president continues to pursue questionable fraud accusations, as he has done against a variety of other political opponents and scapegoats.
Trump informs Lisa Cook he hasn’t dropped efforts to fire her
The Associated Press reported Friday that Federal Reserve Board of Governor’s member Lisa Cook has been informed that the Trump administration is continuing its attempts to remove her from her position. A letter sent to Cook by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino said that the president was still “considering removing you from your position” based on accusations of mortgage fraud made by the administration against Cook in 2025. The letter comes after the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling in June that prevented Trump from firing Cook without giving her a chance to address the accusations being made against her. The ruling protected Cook’s position for now, even as the Supreme Court allowed him to fire officials of other supposedly independent federal agencies, but it also allowed the president to continue his efforts to unseat Cook.
Cook’s yearlong fight against Trump administration efforts to remove her
Cook’s fight with the Trump administration has lasted nearly one year. As Blavity previously reported, Trump announced in August 2025 that he was firing Cook from her Federal Reserve Board position after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte accused Cook of committing fraud over a mortgage application. At the time, Trump was attempting to pressure the Federal Reserve Board, including its then-Chairman Jerome Powell, to lower interest rates. Cook has consistently denied the allegations against her. In a statement made to ABC News after Cook received the latest White House letter, her attorney Abbe Lowell said “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.” Lowell pledged to continue fighting on behalf of Cook. “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.”
Trump White House pushes charges against political opponents
The accusations, which have not resulted in criminal charges, are part of a larger trend of Trump and his allies bringing dubious criminal allegations against the president’s perceived political opponents. Pulte, using his positions in the government to seemingly access the financial records of various officials, has made similar mortgage fraud claims against New York Attorney General Letitia James; that case was thrown out, only for the administration to instead pursue insurance fraud charges. The White House has pursued a variety of other charges against Trump opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey. Even private citizens have become administration targets, such as former Olympian David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in a case that was dropped over Trump’s objection based on evidence that the pool’s damage was the result of a shoddy renovation authorized by Trump. The president has continued to push the Justice Department to pursue charges against Hearn and others whose cases were dismissed.
Despite being rebuked by various courts, Trump continues to push seemingly politically motivated charges against a number of people, including Cook. Now, the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board has been given weeks to mount a defense against charges that she and many experts have already said are baseless.