White House Makes Clear Trump Doesn’t Think Fed Gov Deserves ‘Due Process’ Ahead of Removal

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was pressed on Thursday by Gray TV White House correspondent Jon Decker over whether or not Lisa Cook deserved “due process” before being fired from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.

Decker asked multiple questions during the briefing and noted his second “has to do with the president’s intention to remove Lisa Cook as a member of the Federal Reserve Board.”

“He is going or acting upon allegations that have been made by Trump administration official Bill Pulte. These are just allegations. She hasn’t been convicted yet of any crime. Is the administration opposed to allowing Ms. Cook to have due process to challenge what has been alleged against her?”

“I believe she is challenging it. I believe she just filed a lawsuit today, and Mr. Pulte has referred those allegations over to the Department of Justice to investigate them,” replied Leavitt, adding:

What I will say is that you had these mortgage receipts very clearly shown to the president, and he has the cause that he needs to fire this individual. He laid it out in the letter that he provided to her and to the public as well. And so we’ll continue to fight this battle.

“This case challenges President Trump’s unprecedented and illegal attempt to remove Governor Cook from her position, which, if allowed to occur, would be the first of its kind in the Board’s history,” Abbe Lowell, Cook’s attorney, wrote in the lawsuit.

“It would subvert the Federal Reserve Act … which explicitly requires a showing of ’cause’ for a Governor’s removal, which an unsubstantiated allegation about private mortgage applications submitted by Governor Cook prior to her Senate confirmation is not,” Lowell wrote in the suit.

Many economists have warned that Trump exercising influence over the Fed could create turmoil in the economy as monetary policy would no longer be seen as independent.

Watch the clip above.

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