President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on the US central bank Wednesday with a call for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to step down, as he repeatedly criticizes Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates.
“Cook must resign, now!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, sharing a Bloomberg news report on how the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s director has called for greater scrutiny of Cook over a pair of mortgages.
FHFA director Bill Pulte — a staunch ally of Trump — had reportedly written a letter to the US attorney general calling for an investigation of Cook while suggesting that she might have committed a criminal offense.
Cook said she had learned about it in a post on social media, and that the mortgage application took place “before I joined the Federal Reserve.”
“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” she said in a statement to AFP.
But she said she would take questions about her financial history “seriously” and was “gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”
The Trump administration has pursued allegations of mortgage fraud against high-profile Democrats who are seen as political adversaries of the president.
It was not immediately clear if such a probe will take place targeting Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the central bank’s board.
The president is also limited in his ability to remove officials from the central bank.
A Supreme Court order recently suggested that Fed officials cannot be taken out of their jobs over policy disagreements, meaning they have to be removed for “cause,” which could be interpreted to mean wrongdoing.