Trump Forms White House Committee to Investigate Fed Governor Lisa Cook Ahead of Nov. 5 Hearing

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has established a White House committee of inquiry to investigate allegations against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, setting a Nov. 5 hearing at the White House in a renewed effort to remove her from the central bank’s board, according to a White House statement released Friday and a presidential memorandum dated Oct. 7.

The committee will examine allegations that Cook made false statements in connection with one or more mortgage instruments, according to the White House. The Nov. 5 hearing will be held in person and closed to the public, though a transcript is to be published afterward, according to the Associated Press. Under the memorandum, the panel is to report to the president on whether there is cause, as required by the law governing the Fed, to remove Cook.

Who will hear the case

The three members are all officials appointed by Trump: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, who is also serving as acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, and Andrea Lucas, chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to CNN and the Associated Press.

Cook’s attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, said they have been in contact with the White House to assess whether the proposed process can be a genuine one, and said Cook welcomes the chance to present the facts, clear her name and show there is no legal basis to fire her, according to statements reported by CNN and the Associated Press. The Federal Reserve declined to comment, according to the Associated Press.

A fight already tested at the Supreme Court

Trump first sought to fire Cook in August 2025 after alleging that she had declared two different properties as her primary residence in mortgage applications in 2021, according to the Associated Press. Cook has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime; her lawyers have described any paperwork problem as an inadvertent error and have noted that one property was identified as a vacation home in other documents, according to the Associated Press.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Trump could not immediately remove Cook, finding she had not been given sufficient notice and an opportunity to respond, while leaving unresolved the underlying facts and whether cause for removal exists, according to CNN. No president has previously sought to remove a sitting Fed governor in the central bank’s 113-year history, according to the Associated Press.

Cook, appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2022 as the first Black woman on the Fed’s board, has a term that runs to 2038, according to CNN. She is also one of the 12 voting members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee, which voted unanimously in September to raise rates, a decision Trump has criticized as he presses the central bank to cut its key rate, according to the Associated Press and CNN.

Reporting based on coverage by CNN, the Associated Press and Reuters.