President Donald Trump has announced the creation of an investigative panel targeting Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, seeking to determine whether allegations of misstatements in mortgage applications constitute grounds for her removal under federal law.
The White House announced the panel on Wednesday, but the notice was only posted on the agency's website on Friday.
The three-member panel is tasked with reviewing the evidence and reporting to the president on whether he has sufficient cause to remove Cook. Its members include the assistant to the president for economic policy, the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the director of the Office of Government Ethics.
According to the notice, a hearing will take place on November 5, at which Cook is required to appear and answer questions.
Political pressure
Trump began his effort to remove Cook from her position as a governor on the Fed's Board in August 2025, after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte accused her of misstating information about two different properties in a 2021 mortgage application, before she joined the central bank. Cook was appointed to the Fed Board by former President Joe Biden in 2022, with a term running through 2038.
Trump declared Cook removed amid the allegations, but she sued and a federal judge blocked the dismissal in September 2025. Cook remained in her post while the case proceeded.
By June, the Supreme Court declined to allow Trump to remove Cook while the litigation continued.
The case led to a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that a president cannot remove a Fed governor without proper cause and must follow a clear process for stating reasons and providing evidence.
The ruling preserved Cook's position but sent the case against her back to a federal district court.
The matter has drawn close scrutiny amid Trump's political pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates, including opening investigations targeting then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ended in May.
In December 2025, Trump said he would appoint only someone who shared his views on lowering rates. He appointed Kevin Warsh to replace Powell.
Amid ongoing tensions with Iran, pressure on oil markets and rising inflation, the Fed last month raised its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75–4%, its first increase in three years. With the final rate decision before this month's midterm elections, the CME FedWatch tool tracking the likelihood of monetary policy decisions predicts rates will likely be held steady.
