Powell to attend Supreme Court arguments over Trump's attempt to fire Fed's Lisa Cook
Washington — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday in a case involving President Trump's attempt to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the central bank's Board of Governors.
A source directly familiar with Powell's plans confirmed on Monday that he will attend the arguments. The Associated Press first reported that he will be at the court.
Mr. Trump moved to fire Cook in August following allegations she made misrepresentations on mortgage documents, which were raised by a senior official in his administration. Lower courts let Cook continue serving in her position while she pursued a legal challenge to her firing, and the Supreme Court in October said it would take up the case.
The high court also allowed Cook to remain in her role on the Fed Board while it considered the president's bid for emergency relief. She has denied allegations of mortgage fraud related to bank documents for two properties, one in Atlanta and the other in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has not been charged with any criminal offenses.
The Fed had not taken a position over the legality of Mr. Trump's attempt to fire Cook and said in court papers that it would follow any court orders. But Powell's plan to attend arguments involving her removal comes after he announced that the central bank had received grand jury subpoenas from the Justice Department earlier this month stemming from a criminal investigation. The subpoenas threatened a criminal indictment related to Powell's June 2025 testimony before the Senate Banking Committee about a multi-year renovation of the Fed.
Mr. Trump tapped Powell to serve as the central bank's chair in 2018, and his tenure in that post ends in May. His term as a member of the Fed Board is up in early 2028.
But the president has since soured on Powell over the Fed's decisions surrounding interest rates. Mr. Trump has attacked the Fed chair as either "incompetent" or "crooked," while Powell said threats of criminal charges are "pretexts" and a consequence of the Fed setting interest rates that differ from Mr. Trump's preferences.
"This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress' oversight role; the Fed, through testimony and other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts," Powell said in a video message last week. "The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president."
