President Donald Trump made a last effort to persuade a United States Court of Appeals to dismiss the governor of the Federal ReserveLisa Cook, for accusations of mortgage fraud before the vote of the Fed next week about the interest rates, telling the court again that she has not questioned the accusations.
Last week, Trump asked the Court of Appeals based in Washington to temporarily suspend the judicial order of September 9 that prevented him from saying goodbye to Cook while the lawsuit that challenged his dismissal was processed. It is expected that the ruling of the appeal panel of three judges will know later on Monday.
If the Court of Appeals rejects the request of the Department of Justice of a so -called suspension order, it is likely that the president immediately requests the Supreme Court that intervenes, which will generate a series of last minute arguments with the judges before a very anticipated monetary policy meeting that begins on Tuesday.
Trump decided to say goodbye to Cook last month after Bill Abrete, director of the Federal Housing Financing Agency, FHA, one of his most faculties in favor, will accuse her of mortgage fraud. About claimed that he declared two homes in Georgia and Michigan as their main residence to obtain better loan conditions. Real estate transactions were prior to their stage in the Federal Reserve.
Cook “has not provided any explanation about the apparent contradictory statements in the text of its mortgage contracts, And that is only sufficient reason to suspend the extraordinary preliminary order, ”said the Department of Justice in a presentation on Sunday afternoon.
However, Trump’s new application comes a few days after it was revealed that Cook described the dispute property in Georgia as a “holiday house”, According to documents consulted by Bloomberg News. The estimate of the loan of May 2021 was issued by a credit cooperative weeks before Cook bought the house. The document shows that she told the lender that the property would not be her main residence.
The presentation of the Department of Justice did not address those revelations.
In a statement in response to Trump’s presentation, Cook’s lawyer Abbe Lowell, He said the accusations are a “discredit campaign” aimed at helping Trump take control of the Federal Reserve.
“The government continues to ignore the facts that have been disclosed publicly and cited in our writings that refute their accusations against Governor Cook,” Lowell declared. “The attempt to dismiss Governor Cook is based on carefully selected publications from the director of the FHFA in social networks that crumble before a rigorous analysis.”
Lowell presented his final arguments against Trump’s suspension request in a presentation on Saturdayrepeatedly stating that the independence of the Federal Reserve would be destroyed if the court allowed Cook to be fired for accusations not proven with questionable motifs.
“Therefore, a suspension by this Court would be the first sign that our government system can no longer guarantee the independence of the Federal Reserve,” Lowell declared. “Nothing would then prevent the president from dismissed other members of the Board with equally weak pretexts. The era of the Federal Reserve’s independence would have ended.”
Lowell described the judicial battle as a slippery slope with “disastrous” consequences for the US economy, echoing the arguments that Cook filed in the lawsuit he filed last month.
“Central banks such as the Federal Reserve are independent for one reason: Even the perception of political influence can destroy the confidence of investors, essential for economic growth and stability, ”said Cook’s lawyer in Saturday’s presentation.” And that alarm cannot be denied. “
The president seeks to revoke the decision of the Federal Judge of the Jia Cobb district, who ruled that Trump probably had no reasons based on the Federal Reserve Law to fire Cook. Cobb also said Trump probably violated Cook’s constitutional right to due process when trying to say goodbye through a publication on social networks that did not give him the opportunity to challenge the accusations.
‘Reading in limitations’
In Trump’s Sunday presentation, the president argued that Cobb went too far by saying that he had no reason to say goodbye to Cook because the alleged misconduct occurred a year before he assumed the position in 2022. The Department of Justice described the judge’s conclusions as “retrograde” and said he was “interpreting limitations that Congress knew how to impose, but did not.”
The Federal Reserve has not taken sides in the legal struggle And he has said that he will respect the decision of the court.
The issue for the Court of Appeals is whether to issue a ruling that suspends Cobb’s decision while the appeal is processed, thus allowing Cook’s dismissal. These suspensions are usually granted if the judges consider that the appeal will prosper in terms of the fund and that the part that requests it will face irreparable damage if it does not act immediately.
