Trump establishes committee to investigate Federal Reserve's Lisa Cook
in latest effort to fire her
[October 10, 2026]
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump opened another chapter in his
effort to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook Friday by establishing
a “committee of inquiry” to investigate allegations that she made false
statements in mortgage applications.
The inquiry will include a hearing at the White House Nov. 5, Trump said
in a written memo, that Cook “shall” attend to answer questions from the
committee. The hearing wouldn't be public but a transcript would be
published, the memo said.
Trump’s extraordinary demand that Cook testify before the committee will
likely renew concerns about threats to the Federal Reserve's
independence. The president has repeatedly called for the central bank
to cut its key interest rate, but just last month, the Fed raised it
instead, led by Chairman Kevin Warsh, whom Trump appointed earlier this
year.
Trump's attempts to fire Cook from the Fed's seven-member board of
governors represent the first time in the central bank's 113-year
history that a president has sought to remove a Fed governor. Cook was
appointed by former President Joe Biden and is the first Black woman on
the Fed's board. Trump's attacks on her followed other efforts to oust
or indict Black officials, such as New York Attorney General Letitia
James and Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff.
“As President, it is my job to ensure the laws are faithfully executed,
including by firing subordinates who cannot be trusted to tell the truth
and follow the law,” Trump wrote in the memorandum.
Cook's attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norman Eisen, said they were
considering having Cook appear at the Nov. 5 hearing and respond to the
charges.
“We have engaged with the White House to evaluate whether the process
proposed has a possibility of being a genuine one and not simply a box
checking exercise,” Lowell and Eisen said in a statement. "Governor Cook
welcomes the opportunity to present the facts so she can clear her name
and demonstrate there is no legal basis to fire her.”
The “committee of inquiry" will be composed of Kevin Hassett, the
president's top economic adviser, who has frequently echoed Trump's
criticisms of the Fed; Keith Sonderling, the acting director of the
Office of Government Ethics, whom the president has also appointed to
lead the Labor Department, and Andrea Lucas, the chair of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, whom Trump appointed in November
2025.
Trump initially tried to fire Cook in August 2025 after alleging she had
committed mortgage fraud by declaring two different properties to be her
“primary” residence in mortgage applications in 2021. Mortgages on
primary homes can often receive a lower interest rate or other
beneficial terms.
Cook has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime.
Lowell and Eisen have previously said Cook committed an “inadvertent
error” and did refer to one of the properties as a vacation home in
other documents.
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Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook leaves the
Supreme Court in Washington, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark
Schiefelbein, File)
“An inadvertent error is not fraud, as the President and a third of
his cabinet should know because they reportedly did the same thing,"
Lowell and Eisen said in August.
The Federal Reserve declined to comment on Trump's announcement.
Trump and some of his economic advisers have blamed the Fed's
broader rate-setting committee, which includes 12 voting members and
19 officials in total, for forcing last month's rate hike, even
though it followed comments by Warsh in August that signaled higher
rates were likely. As a member of the board of governors, Cook is
also one of the 12 voting members of the committee. The vote to lift
rates Sept. 16 was unanimous.
The move also follows a Supreme Court ruling in June that Cook could
keep her job after Trump sought to fire her last year. That ruling
included a footnote that said nothing prevented Trump from “trying
again” as long as she was given proper notice and an opportunity to
respond to the charges.
Trump said the committee of inquiry will seek to establish whether
there is “cause” to fire Cook, as required under the law governing
the Fed. The Supreme Court said in June that a for-cause firing
required an alleged offense that was serious and related to an
official's job.
Scott Alvarez, formerly the chief counsel for the Fed, said that
President William Howard Taft set up a similar commission in 1912 to
remove two officials from an independent agency. The commission
created by Trump goes beyond the type of process the Supreme Court
said was needed to fire Cook.
“It’s an attempt to show that he’s really giving Cook as much
process as possible,” Alvarez said.
Still, the allegations against Cook don't appear to meet the “for
cause” standard set out by the Supreme Court, Alvarez said.
Other analysts said that Trump will likely use the process to
ultimately fire Cook.
“We do not see why the White House would start this process if it
were not trying to create a way to justify removing Cook from her
job,” Jaret Seiberg, managing director of TD Cowen's Washington
Research Group, said in a note to clients.
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