Lisa Cook, a governor on the Federal Reserve Board, sued President Trump on Thursday over his decision to fire her from the nation’s central bank, arguing that she should be immediately reinstated because the White House had no authority to order the dismissal.

Cook’s lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, sets the stage for a landmark legal battle with lasting implications for the Fed, an independent institution that Trump has savaged for months in a bid to install new political loyalists and force down interest rates.

The lawsuit also listed the Fed and Jerome H. Powell, its chair, as defendants alongside Trump. That reflected their ability to take actions that adhered to the President’s orders, the lawsuit said.

Cook officially started her legal campaign three days after Trump announced he would fire her in a letter posted to social media. The president claimed that Cook, who was confirmed by the Senate in 2022, had engaged in mortgage fraud, as he invoked a power in the Fed’s founding statute that allowed him to dismiss governors.

But Cook, the first Black woman to serve as Fed governor, has not been charged or convicted of any crime.

Many questioned the legality of Trump’s actions, pointing out that the allegations against Cook were unproven and involved conduct that predated her time at the Fed. Nor was Cook afforded an opportunity to review the evidence and respond to the claims formally, which struck many observers as legally problematic.

New York Times News Service