2026-08-26T23:30:44.37Z / 路透社
2026年1月21日，美国华盛顿，美联储理事丽莎·库克在律师阿贝·洛厄尔陪同下在美国最高法院外旁听，当时大法官们正在审议美国总统唐纳德·特朗普解雇她的请求。路透社/内森·霍华德 购买授权，将在新标签页打开
- 摘要
- 最高法院6月裁定禁止特朗普随意解雇美联储官员
- 特朗普一直施压美联储降息
- 美联储理事会多数成员由特朗普的前任任命
8月26日（路透社）——美联储理事丽莎·库克的律师周三对美国总统唐纳德·特朗普所称的可作为解雇她理由的抵押贷款欺诈指控进行了详细反驳，称这些指控“基于未经审理和证实的刑事不当行为指控”。
“库克理事从未犯下抵押贷款欺诈或任何故意不当行为，不存在法律上可认定的将她从美联储理事会罢免的依据，”库克的律师阿贝·戴维·洛厄尔在致白宫的一封信中说道。
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一年多来，特朗普一直试图解雇库克，此举史无前例，被广泛视为对美国央行独立性的更广泛攻击的一部分。这是美国央行一个多世纪前成立以来，美国总统首次试图罢免央行官员，这将让长期施压降息的特朗普得以任命一位赞同其观点的继任者。
针对首位担任美联储理事的黑人女性库克的抵押贷款欺诈指控，最初由联邦住房金融局局长威廉·普尔泰于去年8月提出。特朗普随即大肆宣扬这些指控，并在社交媒体上宣布将以此为由解雇库克。
库克否认存在任何不当行为，称这些指控是因货币政策分歧而罢免她的借口，并提起诉讼以保住自己的职位。
今年6月，美国最高法院以5票对4票的裁决拒绝允许解雇库克，明确保护美联储官员不受总统随意解雇。此后该案被发回下级法院审理。
该裁决留下了一个悬而未决的问题：如果库克获得为自己辩护的机会，是否存在任何可作为解雇理由的不当行为。
美联储独立性
本月早些时候，白宫再次推进特朗普的解雇行动，在8月5日的一封信中告知库克，总统“正在考虑”将她免职，“理由是有充分理由相信你在一份或多份抵押贷款协议中作出了虚假陈述”。
这封信告知库克“这是你作出回应的机会”，并设定了8月26日的截止日期——两天后，美联储主席凯文·沃什将在怀俄明州杰克逊霍尔举行的堪萨斯城美联储年度经济研讨会上，首次向全球央行行长和经济学家团体发表讲话。
沃什自5月接任美联储主席以来，尚未就库克案发表过言论。但他公开呼应了历任美联储主席以及更广泛的经济共识，即央行货币政策决策若丧失政治独立性，将危及央行对抗通胀的公信力。
特朗普曾多次威胁解雇沃什的前任杰罗姆·鲍威尔，因其未降息，而他的司法部还就建筑翻新事宜对鲍威尔展开刑事调查，一名联邦法官认定这是赤裸裸地向鲍威尔施压，迫使其辞职。
鲍威尔的美联储主席任期结束、沃什上任后，这位共和党总统将批评矛头转向了其他美联储理事，其中包括库克在内的多数理事均由特朗普的民主党前任乔·拜登任命。
在去年8月提交给司法部的刑事转介函中，普尔泰暗示库克犯下了可判处30年监禁的银行欺诈罪，因为公开的抵押贷款文件似乎同时将多套房产列为她的主要住所。这份转介函是普尔泰针对其他特朗普不满对象提出类似指控的多份文件之一。
目前尚无迹象表明针对库克的刑事调查正在推进。路透社去年的报道显示，库克曾向一家贷款机构表明，其中一套有争议的房产是度假屋。路透社还报道称，密歇根州地方税务部门表示，库克在申报其主要住所的税收减免方面并未违反规定。
本月致库克的这封信由白宫副幕僚长丹·斯卡维诺签署，信中称，即便不存在欺诈行为，库克的虚假陈述也构成了过失，让人质疑她作为美联储理事的可信度。
安·萨菲尔报道；保罗·西mao编辑
Lawyer for Fed’s Cook, targeted by Trump, says there is no grounds for dismissal
2026-08-26T23:30:44.37Z / Reuters
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, accompanied by lawyer Abbe Lowell, looks on outside the U.S. Supreme Court, as Supreme Court justices consider U.S. President Donald Trump’s effort to fire her, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
- Summary
- Supreme Court in June blocked Trump from firing Fed officials at will
- Trump has been pushing Fed to lower interest rates
- Majority of Fed board members were appointed by Trump’s predecessor
Aug 26 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s lawyer on Wednesday offered a detailed rebuttal to the accusations of mortgage fraud that U.S. President Donald Trump asserts provide cause to fire her, saying they rely “on untried and unproven allegations of criminal wrongdoing.”
“Governor Cook has never committed mortgage fraud or any intentional wrongdoing, and there is no legally cognizable cause for removing her from the Federal Reserve Board,” Cook’s attorney Abbe David Lowell said in a letter to the White House.
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Trump has been trying to sack Cook for more than a year in an unprecedented effort widely seen as part of a broader assault on the U.S. central bank’s independence. It’s the first time a U.S. president has attempted to remove a central banker since the institution’s founding more than a century ago, and would give Trump, who has long pushed for lower interest rates, the ability to install a replacement sympathetic to his view.
Mortgage fraud allegations against Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor, were first levied last August by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte. The accusations were promptly amplified by Trump, who announced on social media that he was dismissing her over them.
Cook denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations a pretext to remove her for monetary policy differences, and she sued to keep her job.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to allow her removal in a 5-4 ruling that definitively protects Fed officials from being fired at will by a president. It has since returned the case to the lower court.
The decision left open the question of whether there was any wrongdoing that could serve as cause for termination, provided Cook was given the opportunity to defend herself.
FED INDEPENDENCE
Earlier this month, the White House took a fresh run at Trump’s firing effort, telling Cook in a letter dated August 5 that the president was “considering” removing her from her role “due to there being sufficient reason to believe that you made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements.”
The letter told Cook that “this is your chance to respond” and set a deadline of August 26, two days before Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh is scheduled to give his first address to a group of global central bankers and economists gathered in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the Kansas City Fed’s annual economic symposium.
Warsh has not addressed Cook’s case since taking the reins at the Fed in May. But he has publicly echoed past Fed chiefs and the broader economic consensus that any loss of political independence for the central bank’s monetary policy decision-making would imperil its inflation-fighting credibility.
Trump repeatedly threatened to fire Warsh’s predecessor, Jerome Powell, for not lowering interest rates, and his Department of Justice pursued a criminal investigation of Powell over building renovations that a federal judge found to be a thinly disguised effort to pressure him into resigning.
Once Powell’s term as Fed chief ended and Warsh began his, the Republican president redirected his criticisms at other Fed board members, a majority of whom, including Cook, were appointed by Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
In a criminal referral to the Justice Department last August, Pulte suggested Cook had committed bank fraud punishable by 30 years in prison because publicly available mortgage documents appeared to simultaneously claim more than one home as her primary residence. The referral was one of several Pulte made containing similar allegations against other targets of Trump’s disfavor.
There has been no indication a criminal investigation into Cook is moving forward. A Reuters report last year showed Cook had indicated to a lender that one of the homes at issue was a vacation property. Reuters also reported the local tax authority in Michigan said Cook had not broken rules for tax breaks on a home there that she declared as her primary residence.
The letter this month to Cook, signed by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, said that even if there wasn’t fraud, Cook’s misstatements constitute negligence that calls into question her trustworthiness as a Fed governor.
Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Paul Simao
