Trump restarts effort to fire Fed's Lisa Cook

President Trump is renewing his effort to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her position. According to a letter from White House presidential aide Dan Scavino, dated August 5, the president is "considering" removing Cook, citing unproven mortgage fraud allegations. Cook has denied these allegations.

The attempt to fire Cook is rooted in a criminal referral made by Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, accusing her of committing mortgage fraud. Cook's lawyer has called the allegations "baseless" and stated that there is no valid cause for removing her from her position. The Supreme Court previously ruled in June that Trump did not have the power to dismiss Fed governors for any reason, but Chief Justice John Roberts noted that Trump could try again provided Cook was given proper notice and a chance to contest it.

Cook has been given 21 days from the date of the letter to respond to the allegations. According to Fortune, the Trump administration is appealing a lower-court ruling in Cook's favor. The move is seen as part of Trump's assault on the independence of the Federal Reserve.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Hill, Free Malaysia Today, Fortune, South China Morning Post, El Pais — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.