Oct. 9 (UPI) — President Donald Trump established a committee of inquiry Friday to investigate Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook on allegations she made false statements in respect to “one or more mortgage instruments.”
He announced the committee in a memorandum posted on the White House website. The committee comprises Kevin Hassett, Trump’s adviser on economic policy; Keith Sonderling, labor secretary and acting director of the Office of Government Ethics; and Andrea Lucas, the chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Trump’s memo said that it’s his job to fire “subordinates who cannot be trusted to tell the truth and follow the law.” He said the committee would investigate and “report to me whether there is ’cause’ for Governor Cook’s removal.”
Trump first attempted to fire Cook from the Federal Reserve in 2025, accusing her of committing mortgage fraud in a loan application by incorrectly listing a property as a vacation home. The Supreme Court ruled against that effort in June, saying Trump needed proper justification.
In August, the Trump administration sent Cook a letter laying out its allegations and seeking a written response within 21 days. She said Trump has “no legal basis” to fire her and said the error on her mortgage loan application was an error.
“An inadvertent error is not fraud, as the President and a third of his cabinet should know because they reportedly did the same thing,” Cook’s attorneys said in a statement. “These attacks on Governor Cook are not about real estate paperwork; they are an attempt by President Trump to force the Federal Reserve to bend to his will.”
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