'I'm not going anywhere'

Fed governor is defiant in the face of being ‘fired’ by Trump

- RACHEL DOBKIN JAMES LIDDELL

Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook said that she will not resign after Donald Trump vowed to remove her from the role “immediately”.

In a letter to Ms Cook posted to social media by the White House on Monday evening, President Trump claimed there is “sufficient reason” to believe that the policymaker “made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements”.

Mr Trump touted his powers under the constitution and US law to justify the unprecedented move for a president to dismiss a member of the central bank’s leadership.

The letter cited a criminal referral from William Pulte, the director of federal housing, to the attorney general Pam Bondi, dated 15 August. Mr Pulte claimed Ms Cook declared a property in Michigan as her primary residence in 2021, and then two weeks later, declared a property in Georgia as her primary residence.

Ms Cook has not been charged with any wrongdoing or convicted of a crime.

“It is inconceivable that you were not aware of your first commitment when making the second. It is impossible that you intended to honor both,” Mr Trump wrote in the letter to Cook, whom former president Joe Biden nominated for the Fed board in 2022.