Fired Fed board member sues Trump to try to keep her job

Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve board member whom Donald Trump attempted to fire this week, asked a federal court Thursday to declare the president’s move illegal and void.

In a lawsuit filed in the federal district court in Washington, D.C., Cook contends that Trump’s stated reason for dismissing her is an “unprecedented and illegal” pretext to seize control of the Fed’s decision-making body, which Trump has long maligned and sought to influence.

Federal law permits the president to remove Federal Reserve board members “for cause,” which is typically understood to mean serious misconduct or malfeasance. Trump claimed that he had good cause to fire Cook based on an uncorroborated allegation, which originated from the Trump loyalist who heads a federal housing agency, that Cook lied on a mortgage application.

“President Trump’s conception of ‘cause’ has no limiting principle,” Cook argued in the lawsuit. “It would allow him to remove any Federal Reserve Board member with whom he disagrees about policy based on chalked up allegations.”