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President Donald Trump has moved the fight over Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook into a formal review, setting up a committee to examine mortgage fraud allegations tied to her housing documents. The new process gives Cook another chance to answer the claims, while keeping the pressure on a battle that has already reached the Supreme Court and sharpened the clash over how much power a president has over independent agencies.
The committee was created after Trump’s earlier attempt to remove Cook hit a wall in court. He first tried to fire her in August 2025, but the Supreme Court later blocked that effort in June 2026, saying she had not been given enough time to respond to the allegations before losing her job.
Now the White House is using a hearing process that looks built to survive legal scrutiny. Cook can file a written statement before her scheduled Nov. 5, 2026 hearing, and that filing has to arrive at least three days in advance.
The hearing itself will take place at the White House and is expected to last no more than four hours. It will be closed to the public, but a transcript will be made, which keeps the process on the record without turning it into a public spectacle.
At the hearing, Cook will be allowed to “present argument, written evidence, and written witness statements regarding the evidence and allegations,” according to the White House. Lawyers from the Department of Justice will then question her, putting the allegations directly under the spotlight.
Three White House staffers will serve on the committee, including National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett. Hassett has long been part of Trump’s economic orbit and was once floated as a possible successor to Jerome Powell before Trump eventually turned to Kevin Warsh instead.
The committee is expected to weigh Cook’s written response after the hearing and then send Trump a recommendation on whether there is enough cause to remove her from office. That structure matters because it gives the White House a way to say the process is being handled carefully, even as the underlying dispute stays aggressive and personal.
The allegations themselves center on claims that Cook made false statements on mortgage documents. The White House has said she listed homes in Atlanta and Michigan as her primary residence on separate mortgage agreements, then later rented out the Atlanta property.
Cook’s legal team has pushed back hard, saying the Atlanta designation was an inadvertent mistake. Her attorney has argued that she was seeking financing for the property as a vacation home and consistently treated Michigan as her “primary” or “permanent” residence.
The renewed effort picked up speed after the White House sent Cook a letter in August saying Trump was again considering terminating her. This time, she was given 21 days to respond, and her attorneys denied that she had committed mortgage fraud in a letter submitted on Aug. 26.
The timing keeps the whole episode in the middle of a larger fight over the Federal Reserve and who gets to shape it. With the hearing approaching and the committee already in motion, Cook is headed into another round where documents, testimony, and legal definitions could decide whether she stays in her seat or becomes the latest casualty in Trump’s push to redraw the boundaries of executive power.
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