WASHINGTON — A Washington, DC, federal judge was weighing an order Friday that would block Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s ouster by President Trump after hearing arguments for more than two hours from lead defense attorney Abbe Lowell and a Department of Justice lawyer.
The hearing concluded with no clear timeline for when US District Judge Jia M. Cobb would rule on a temporary restraining order request filed by Cook’s attorneys Thursday.
Cobb gave no indication about which way she would rule, but did emphasize the Fed’s “need for independence.”
The Fed’s Board of Governors and several Reserve Bank presidents are scheduled to meet to discuss US monetary policy — including potential changes to interest rates — on Sept. 16 and 17 in DC.
Lowell argued at several points during the hearing that Cook’s firing by Trump Monday violated her due process rights by not giving her sufficient time to respond to mortgage fraud allegations — and claimed that the administration had not demonstrated the dismissal was “for cause.”
Lowell, whose former clients include ex-first son Hunter Biden, even claimed that Cook could be fired for the slightest dissent from Trump’s current agenda — including teaching at a university that pushes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies.
Lowell also insisted Cook’s firing really stemmed from the president’s frustrations with Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s refusal to previously cut interest rates, arguing the commander in chief tried to take a baseball bat to the chair’s independence and when that failed he “took a swing at the next person up at the plate.”
“‘For cause’ means she won’t go along with an interest rate drop,” Lowell claimed in the DC court room.
Trump’s Aug. 25 letter to Cook announcing her firing followed a criminal referral to the DOJ by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte that alleged the Fed official had improperly listed two properties — an Atlanta condo and a Michigan home — as her primary residence in 2021.
Cook did not begin renting the Georgia property until 2022. The FHFA chief filed the criminal referral on those disclosures Aug. 15.
Pulte filed a second referral Thursday, alleging Cook wrongly listed her Cambridge, Mass., condo as a rental property on government ethics forms but as a “second home” on mortgage documents between 2021 and 2025.
“3 strikes and you’re out,” he warned in an X post Thursday night.
On Thursday morning, Cook sued Trump to reverse what her team called an “unprecedented and illegal” move, with Lowell and her attorneys suggesting a “clerical error” had been made on the loan documents.
DOJ attorney Yaakov Roth argued Friday the erroneous listing of one of Cook’s homes as a primary residence was either “intentional” — and therefore criminal — or negligent, and thus grounds for removal.
Roth also stressed it didn’t matter that the alleged fudging of loan agreements predated the start of Cook’s 15-year Fed term, to which she was confirmed by a narrow 51-47 Senate vote in September 2023.
Cook has “still given no explanation” for the misrepresentation on the mortgage documents, the DOJ attorney added.
“Is there some material factual dispute?” Roth asked the court. “I think if there was something like that, we would have heard it by now.”
Both legal teams were given time to file additional briefs after the Labor Day holiday weekend, with the temporary restraining order motion expected to be refiled as a request for a preliminary injunction.
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