U.S. Federal Reserve President Lisa Cook during a public meeting of the Federal Reserve Committee in Washington, DC, Wednesday, June 25th, 2025.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Current and former Federal Reserve officials were surprised by the general memo when asked about Lisa Cook’s situation. It is essential that central bank independence is preserved.
Cook, the Fed Gov. appointed in 2022 by then-President Joe Biden, faces attacks on a mortgage fraud accusations from Bill Prute, director of the Federal Housing and Finance Agency. Justice Department lawyer Ed Martin also urged Chairman Jerome Powell to fire the cook from her post, confirming that a criminal investigation would be underway.
Central bank officials rejected the idea of resignation on Wednesday, saying in a statement that they “I am not intending to resign from my position due to some of the questions raised in the tweet.”
“I know that Lisa Cook is a standout economist and a man of high integrity,” Cleveland Federal President Beth Hammack told CNBC Friday.
The latest developments plate Wall Street concerns surrounding the Fed’s independence. Trump is a critic of Powell’s voice, especially in terms of the timing of changing interest rates and accusing him of being “political.”
Trump had said he was “very unlikely” before serving as chairman in May 2026, but the president has already begun considering several candidates to take over him, and last week threatened to allow “major lawsuits” against Powell to continue, pushing down low interest rates once more.
The Fed, which maintains a strict data-dependent stance, has been stabilizing fees since December.
Trump also forced Cook to step down this week after the accusations. He even said Friday that if she doesn’t leave her post, he would fire her. The odds that Cook saw the governor surge in the forecast market following these comments this year, rising from around 21% of the day to over 30%, came from around 21% of the day.
US President Donald Trump visits the White House Experience Museum in Washington, DC on August 22, 2025, and speaks by a wall featuring the names of the former US president and the first woman.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Former Boston federal government president Eric Rosengren believes more information is needed before a decision is made by Cook or the administration.
“I don’t know what Lisa Cook will do. That’s a difficult situation for her, but there are allegations today, but there’s no fact,” Rosengren said Friday of CNBC’s “Money Mover.” “I don’t think people should come to a conclusion until some facts come up.”
Protection of Independence
When asked about the pressure the Fed faces, including the call to resignation against Cook, former Federal Reserve Vice Chair Roger Ferguson stressed the importance of an institution educating the American public about “what it is doing, why it matters” and “why we went through a positive period.”
“Because people had to deal with it for the first time in 30 or 40 years, literally for the first time in 40 years, everyone said, ‘Wow, this inflation is a secret tax on middle income and… lower class individuals,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday. “The Fed is an agency that is about controlling inflation and the other side, so I’m going to turn this around and say it’s time for us all to educate the people of America. That’s how we can ensure independence.”
Ferguson added that things aren’t going well in places around the world where central bank independence is undermined. For the US, he is still optimistic about the Fed’s future in that respect.
“I think it’s maintaining independence because the population is lagging behind and says, ‘Wait a minute, there was inflation, that’s not a good thing, we need an independent Fed to maintain it. We need to do your job, like Congress and others, and protect the Fed as much as you can,” he said.
