Appeals court rejects Trump’s bid to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook

By Elisabeth Buchwald, Dan Berman, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump cannot remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors for now, a federal appeals court said in an emergency ruling Monday, hours before the central bank’s two-day monetary policy meeting kicks off.

The decision from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, split 2-1 along party lines, marks another defeat for the White House’s efforts to control the Fed and economic policy. Trump has sought to oust Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud, though Cook has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

The Federal Reserve Act specifies that presidents can only fire Fed governors “for cause,” and Trump has sought to leverage allegations of mortgage fraud as a sufficient cause for firing.

“In this court, the government does not dispute that it failed to provide Cook even minimal process—that is, notice of the allegation against her and a meaningful opportunity to respond—before she was purportedly removed,” Judges Bradley Garcia and Michelle Childs wrote in their opinion.

“The district court issued its preliminary injunction after finding that Cook is likely to succeed on two of her claims: her substantive, statutory claim that she was removed without ‘cause’… and her procedural claim that she did not receive sufficient process prior to her removal in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment,” Garcia and Childs wrote.

The court’s decision comes just weeks after Trump said he fired Cook, who responded by suing Trump based on “an unsubstantiated allegation” and that her firing violated her due process rights. If Trump is ultimately successful in removing Cook, it would mark the first time a Fed governor was fired by a president in the central bank’s 111-year history.

At the same time the court ruled Trump couldn’t immediately fire Cook, Stephen Miran, Trump’s nominee to fill a separate seat on Fed’s Board, was confirmed by the Senate.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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