US President Donald Trump expanded pressure on the Federal Reserve on Monday by moving to fire Governor Lisa Cook "effective immediately", a step the independent central bank official said he had "no authority" to take.
Trump's decision against the first Black woman to serve on the central bank's board cited allegations of false statements on her mortgage agreements.
Referring to the Federal Reserve Act as justification, Trump wrote in a letter addressed to Cook: "I have determined that there is sufficient cause to remove you from your position."
Cook rejected the president's authority to do so, saying no cause exists.
"I will not resign," she said in a statement shared by her attorney Abbe Lowell with US media. "I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy."
A US president is generally limited in their ability to remove officials from the central bank, with a Supreme Court order recently suggesting that Fed officials can only be removed for "cause," which could be interpreted to mean malfeasance or dereliction of duty.
But the US leader pointed to a criminal referral dated August 15 from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's director -- a staunch ally of Trump -- to the US attorney general in his announcement that Cook would be removed from her role.
The referral, Trump said, provided "sufficient reason" to believe that Cook might have made "false statements" on one or more mortgage agreements.
One of the alleged false statements was that Cook had...
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