The Hill reports Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are skeptical about President Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, but they’re staying silent to avoid a direct confrontation with him.
Republican sources tell the Hill they see Trump’s claim that he’s firing Cook over mortgage fraud as weak, and they worry he’s trampling the Fed’s independence.
One senior Senate GOP aide speaking anonymously with the Hill said Trump does not appear to have good “cause” to fire Cook.
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“If he has cause to fire her over an allegation of malfeasance from before she was even confirmed by the Senate, there’s a million other ways you could then cook up a definition of ‘cause,’” to justify firing an independent commissioner or board member, the aid said.
Trump cited allegations by Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a Trump appointee, that Cook designated both a condominium in Atlanta and a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as her primary residence in taking out loans. However, the Hill reports Trump has relentlessly feuded with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the Fed’s unwillingness to cut interest rates.
“This is clearly aimed at Powell. They’re trying to box Powell in,” the source told the Hill.
Cook was unmoving in her response to the unproven accusations.
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“President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022,” Cook’s office said.
Her attorney, Abbe Lowell, pledged to “take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action.”
Salon Columnist Heather Digby Parton called Trump’s effort a power grab, and said members of the Supreme Court had enabled the president by allowing him to fire or dismantle other government agencies created by Congress.
“… [M]ake no mistake: This is about control, and it goes far beyond the Federal Reserve,” wrote Parton, referencing the court’s May decision allowing Trump to oust Democratic-appointed members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board, before their terms were finished.
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“The justices should have known their instructions would fall on intentionally occluded ears, because this president is full of caprice, among other things,” Parton said.
Read the Hill story at this link. Catch Parton's Salon article at this link.