Washington\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n The White House is renewing its effort to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve\u2019s Board of Governors, according to a letter addressed to her attorney obtained by CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n The letter, dated August 5, said there is \u201csufficient reason to believe that you have made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements,\u201d and asked her to submit a written response to the allegations within 21 days. The Trump administration first raised the accusations last year, which prompted a Justice Department investigation. Cook has not been charged with a crime and has denied any wrongdoing.\n <\/p>\n
\n ABC News was the first to report on the letter.\n <\/p>\n
\n Over the past 24 hours, Trump has pushed against two major Supreme Court rulings against him: The Cook case and the birthright citizenship case. On Thursday, Trump signed executive orders<\/a> limiting so-called birth tourism and birthright citizenship.\n <\/p>\n \n The Supreme Court in June ruled that Cook wasn\u2019t given the opportunity<\/a> to address the administration\u2019s accusations of mortgage fraud when President Donald Trump announced her firing last year. However, the ruling was narrow in scope as it did not determine there was enough cause to remove Cook based on the fraud allegations.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThese allegations are as baseless now as they were a year ago when President Trump tried to remove Governor Cook and interfere with the independence of the Federal Reserve,\u201d Cook\u2019s attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, said in a statement. \u201cNo matter what President Trump tries to do next, this much is clear under the facts and Supreme Court precedent \u2014 there is no valid cause for removing Governor Cook.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In an interview with CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper, Lowell said that \u201callegation doesn\u2019t amount to cause\u201d and that \u201cthere\u2019s not a chance that Governor Cook committed mortgage fraud.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe will respond in the time that we were provided,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be a thorough response. It will have documentation. It will make sense to people when they see it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Trump has long berated the politically independent Fed because it hasn\u2019t lowered interest rates to his liking, especially Cook and former Fed Chair Jerome Powell. But the president has spared the current chairman, Kevin Warsh, at a time when higher inflation is raising the odds of rate hikes.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump is instead focusing his criticism on Warsh\u2019s colleagues on the central bank\u2019s eight-member Board, which votes on interest rate decisions, along with regional Fed presidents. While the Fed leader often plays an influential role in shaping the discussion on policy moves, decisions are ultimately the result of a committee process.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHe\u2019s got a board that\u2019s very political,\u201d Trump said in an interview with Punchbowl News that published Friday \u201cIt\u2019s not totally up to him. It\u2019s up to a board. I think he\u2019s great.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI won\u2019t be criticizing him,\u201d Trump added.\n <\/p>\n \n The Fed declined to comment.\n <\/p>\n \n Last month when asked to weigh on the high court\u2019s ruling, Warsh said \u201cI believe in the rule of law\u201d and that \u201cwe\u2019ll follow the Supreme Court decision.\u201d Warsh has declined to weigh in on the case and what it means for Fed independence, unlike his predecessor. Powell attended oral arguments<\/a> in the Lisa Cook case in January, in an unusual show of support.\n <\/p>\n