Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook will mount a legal challenge against President Donald Trump's attempt to remove her from the central bank, setting up a high-stakes confrontation with high-powered attorney Abbe Lowell.
"President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook," Lowell wrote in a statement. "His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis.
"We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this action."
Lowell is a veteran defense attorney with a four-decade career representing high-profile political figures. He has defended Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, among others. More recently, Lowell launched his own firm, Lowell & Associates, and has taken on clients who have been outspoken critics or legal adversaries of Trump, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former Trump aide Miles Taylor, NPR reported.
Trump notified Cook of her removal in a letter Monday, citing allegations she improperly claimed two primary residences to secure favorable mortgage terms.
"In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter, [the American people] cannot and I do not have such confidence in your integrity," Trump wrote in his letter dated Monday.
"You are hereby removed from your position on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately."
The referral was filed by Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee who oversees the agency regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and centers on mortgages Cook obtained in Michigan and Georgia.
"I'll fire her if she doesn't resign," Trump told reporters during a visit to the Kennedy Center last Friday.
Cook, a Biden appointee confirmed to the Federal Reserve in 2023, has said she would not resign and maintains the allegations are baseless. Her removal would mark the first time a sitting president has sought to oust a Federal Reserve governor in decades, a move legal experts say could hinge on whether courts find "cause" under the Federal Reserve Act.
The action immediately drew sharp rebukes from Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Trump of endangering the central bank's independence and playing "a dangerous game of Jenga" with the U.S. economy.
"This attempted firing shreds the independence of the Fed and puts every American's savings and mortgage at risk," Schumer said Tuesday. "This brazen power grab must be stopped by the courts before Trump does permanent damage."
Trump and his advisers argue Cook and other Biden-era appointees have pursued policies that slowed growth and prolonged inflation, while his critics see the move as an unprecedented intrusion into the Federal Reserve's autonomy.
Cook's lawsuit, once filed, is expected to test the limits of presidential authority over the central bank at a moment of continued economic volatility.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.