President Trump has launched a formal White House inquiry into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, creating a "committee of inquiry" to investigate allegations she made false statements on mortgage applications — and ordering her to appear at a closed-door hearing at the White House on November 5.
Watch: CBS News on Trump's committee to investigate Cook (CBS News).
"As President, it is my job to ensure the laws are faithfully executed, including by firing subordinates who cannot be trusted to tell the truth and follow the law," Trump wrote in a presidential memorandum dated October 7 and posted to the White House website Friday. The committee, he said, "shall investigate the allegations against Governor Cook and report to me whether there is 'cause' for Governor Cook's removal."
The three-member panel is stacked with Trump's top people: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, newly installed Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling (also serving as acting director of the Office of Government Ethics), and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas. The committee can consult federal agencies including the Justice Department. Its in-person hearing at the White House on November 5 — two days after the midterm elections — will run no longer than four hours, won't be public, but a transcript will be published.
This is Trump's second attempt to oust Cook. He tried to fire her in August 2025 over the same mortgage-fraud allegations, which were first surfaced by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, a Trump ally. Cook sued, and on June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Trump could not remove a Fed governor without adequate cause — but included a footnote saying nothing prevented him from "trying again" as long as she got proper notice and a chance to respond. This committee is that second try, built to satisfy the Court's procedural demands: Cook gets the evidence in advance, can appear with counsel, submit written evidence and witness statements, and file a final written response by November 10.
Cook's lawyers, Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, say they've been in touch with the White House to evaluate whether the process "has a possibility of being a genuine one and not simply a box-checking exercise." In a statement Friday, they said: "If the hearing is anything close to objective, the conclusion will be that Governor Cook did not commit mortgage fraud, leaving no cause to remove her from the Federal Reserve Board. Governor Cook welcomes the opportunity to present the facts so she can clear her name."
Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Fed's board, was appointed in 2022 by President Biden and reappointed in 2023 to a term running through 2038. She has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. Independent analyses have questioned Pulte's accusations — Reuters reported Cook had declared her Atlanta house a "vacation home," undercutting the claim she misrepresented it.
The bigger fight is over the Fed itself. Trump has spent more than a year demanding the central bank slash interest rates, blaming it for refusing "for political reasons." Just last month the Fed raised its key rate instead, in a unanimous September 16 vote led by Chairman Kevin Warsh — Trump's own appointee. Cook is one of 12 voting members on the rate-setting committee. Removing her would hand Trump a vacancy on the seven-member Board and a direct lever over monetary policy.
No president has fired a sitting Fed governor in the agency's 112-year history. On November 5, in a closed room at the White House, Trump will try to become the first — with a transcript to prove he did it by the book this time.