Federal Reserve Board member Cook strikes back: From Harvard to the Federal Reserve, Trump's tactics are the same!
Federal Reserve Board member Cook stated that this week's federal court ruling in favor of Harvard University supported her claim: Trump attempted to fire her under the guise of so-called mortgage fraud, merely a pretext to mask his true motive.
Cook stated in court documents submitted to the Washington court on Thursday evening that the allegations of mortgage fraud against her concealed Trump's true purpose—controlling the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
She cited a federal judge's ruling that determined Trump used the anti-Semitism issue on Harvard's campus as a "smokescreen," when in fact it was targeting the university due to deep-seated ideological differences.
Cook presented this argument in the documents to support her request for a temporary order to prevent Trump from firing her. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb is expected to make a ruling on her request soon.
The ruling referenced by Cook was made in the lawsuit filed by Harvard University against Trump for canceling billions of dollars in research funding.
Cook believes that the ruling in the Harvard case revealed Trump's "obvious two-step strategy": to first make ideologically driven statements, and then claim in court that his actions had legitimate motives.
The White House did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
Earlier this week, Cook told the judge that Trump's allegations against her were "copy-paste" in nature, alluding to similar accusations Trump made against prominent Democratic critics.
On Thursday, U.S. government lawyers again urged the judge to dismiss Cook's request to prevent her dismissal during the lawsuit, reinforcing the arguments made at last week's hearing. Hours before the legal filing, reports emerged that the Justice Department had launched a criminal investigation into Cook.
The U.S. government argues that the fraud allegations first raised by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Calabria constitute sufficient "grounds" under U.S. law for Trump to fire her.
The Justice Department emphasized in Thursday's documents that the judge cannot "question" Trump's judgment regarding the grounds for dismissal, and again dismissed the notion that the alleged dismissal was merely a pretext for controlling the Federal Reserve and lowering interest rates. "Her only 'evidence' is that the president has criticized the Federal Reserve's policies," the document states, "but mere policy disagreements do not mean the president therefore fired Cook." #美联储降息预期 #美国当周失业金人数
