A lawyer for Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook told the White House Wednesday that its allegations she committed mortgage fraud are unfounded, a response to the Trump administration's latest threat to try to fire her.
The letter to the White House tees up a decision by President Trump on whether to attempt removing her again, after the Supreme Court blocked an earlier effort and required that she first get an opportunity to respond.
The White House reopened its attempt to remove Cook earlier this month with a letter laying out its case, first made last year, that Cook falsified personal mortgage documents. Cook's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, rejected those allegations, writing Wednesday that her financing applications were aboveboard and made no attempt to mislead lenders.
"Governor Cook has never committed mortgage fraud or any intentional wrongdoing, and there is no legally cognizable cause for removing her from the Federal Reserve Board," Lowell wrote in the letter.
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The dispute centers on a condominium Cook bought in Atlanta in July 2021-before she joined the Fed-which the White House alleges she falsely pledged to occupy as her primary residence. Standardized loan forms that Cook signed show she referred to two different properties-the Atlanta condo and a Michigan residence that she refinanced around the same time-as her primary residence.
Lowell acknowledged that paperwork signed by Cook inadvertently described the Atlanta condo as her primary residence.
The lender, however, "knew that she had lived in Michigan for more than 15 years and worked full time as a tenured professor at Michigan State University," Lowell wrote. "Governor Cook gave no indication that she was leaving to take any new job in Atlanta."
His letter includes a declaration from a law professor who studies real estate finance, Kathleen Engel of Suffolk University, stating that the evidence against Cook the White House has presented doesn't show intentional wrongdoing.
Cook's lawsuit to remain in her job has prevailed provisionally in three courts, most recently at the Supreme Court in June. The president now faces a decision over whether to attempt another removal, a step that would likely renew an existing court battle before U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, where Cook's original lawsuit is still pending.
In the White House's letter reopening the case this month, Deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino wrote that Trump was considering removing her over "sufficient reason to believe" she made false statements on mortgage agreements and asked her to reply by Aug. 26. The letter also said Cook had never provided an explanation for the allegations.
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