Trump Creates Three-Member Panel to Investigate Fed Governor Lisa Cook, Sets Nov. 5 Hearing

President Donald Trump on Friday formally established a "committee of inquiry" to investigate allegations that Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook made false statements tied to "one or more mortgage instruments," and to report back to him on whether there is cause to remove her from the central bank's Board of Governors, according to the White House memo and CNBC's reporting.

Who sits on the panel and what authority it claims

The three members Trump appointed are Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council; Keith Sonderling, Labor secretary and acting director of the Office of Government Ethics; and Andrea R. Lucas, chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. All three are Trump appointees, and CNBC notes no outside, independent arbiters were named to the committee. CNBC's explainer piece describes the panel as made up of executive branch appointees who report to the president and are not impartial members of the judicial branch, though they are required to hear Cook's point of view. In the memo, addressed to Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump wrote: "As President, it is my job to ensure the laws are faithfully executed, including by firing subordinates who cannot be trusted to tell the truth and follow the law."

What happens Nov. 5 and the path after it

The memo orders an in-person hearing at the White House on Nov. 5, 2026, lasting no more than four hours, closed to the public but transcribed. Cook must appear and be examined by the committee, its representatives — potentially including Justice Department personnel — and her own counsel, according to the memo and the Guardian's report. CNBC points out the hearing falls two days after the midterm election. Cook may submit a written position statement at least three days before the hearing and a post-hearing statement by Nov. 10; the committee is required to share with her the evidence it is considering beforehand. After that, the committee must submit written findings of fact and conclusions of law and recommend whether there is cause for removal — but the final decision rests with Trump, and the memo sets no deadline for it, CNBC reports.

Notably, the committee does not need to find that Cook committed a crime, only that the president has cause to fire her. The Supreme Court did not spell out a precise definition of "cause" in its June ruling; Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that such a finding depends "at least in part, on the seriousness of the alleged misconduct, and the extent of any nexus that may exist to the Governor's professional duties," per CNBC's account of the opinion. Roberts had also made clear the Court did not require a hearing of this kind, writing that Cook was entitled only to notice, an explanation of the evidence and an opportunity to present her defense — a process that could occur entirely in writing, since a Fed governor is not "entitled to an audience with the President or a full-blown judicial trial."

Even if Trump moves to fire Cook after the hearing, that may not be the end of it. CNBC notes the Supreme Court's ruling establishes that courts are entitled to review the president's determination of cause, so a firing would likely return to the justices in a process that could take months, with Cook likely continuing to serve on the board while any court challenge plays out. The memo also allows Justice Department officials to question Cook but does not specify whether her answers would be shielded from use in a later criminal case, leaving unresolved whether her testimony would count as legally compelled under Fifth Amendment protections, CNBC reported.

A rarely used device

The committee-of-inquiry mechanism has little modern precedent. President William Howard Taft convened a similar panel in 1912 to consider removing two members of the Board of General Appraisers — a precursor to what is now the U.S. Court of International Trade — and that committee ultimately recommended their removal, CNBC reported. The Supreme Court cited Taft's committee in its June ruling temporarily blocking Trump's first attempt to fire Cook, according to CNBC. President Herbert Hoover used a comparable process in 1931 to probe statements by the president of the Navy League, also per CNBC.

Legal and political reaction

Cook's attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, told CNBC they have "grave doubts that this 'hearing' is a legitimate one that would conform to the law," pointing to Trump's repeated statements that he has already decided to fire Cook regardless of the facts. They added that Cook "welcomes the opportunity to present the facts so she can clear her name and demonstrate there is no legal basis to fire her," per the Guardian. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, accused Trump of "convening an illegitimate show trial in his dangerous quest to illegally take over our nation's central bank," while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump "is escalating his smear campaign against Lisa Cook." The Fed itself declined to comment and referred CNBC to Cook's lawyers.

The underlying allegations and litigation history

The dispute traces back to August 2025, when Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte accused Cook of misrepresenting two properties on a 2021 mortgage application, before she joined the central bank, according to Al Jazeera; SCOTUSblog reported the properties were a condo in Georgia and a house in Michigan, each listed as her primary residence. Cook's legal team has said any fraud claims rest on unrelated clerical errors and that the White House is "cherrypicking" facts, per the Guardian. Under the Federal Reserve Act, a president can remove a governor only "for cause," CNBC notes, and District Judge Jia Cobb had found Cook "substantially likely" to show that provision does not reach conduct predating her Fed tenure, per SCOTUSblog. The Supreme Court voted 5-4 on June 29 to let Cook remain in office while her challenge continued, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing that "the President failed to afford Cook the procedural protections to which she was entitled by statute," according to SCOTUSblog, and the case was sent back to a federal district court, Al Jazeera reported. Cook — appointed by Joe Biden in 2022 to a 14-year term running until 2038 and the Fed's first Black governor, per the Guardian and Al Jazeera — responded through Lowell on Aug. 27 to an Aug. 5 letter from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, calling the allegations "unfounded and untrue," according to SCOTUSblog.

Does this reach Powell or other governors?

CNBC's explainer states the new committee has no immediate bearing on former Chair Jerome Powell, who ended his term as chairman in May but can remain a voting member of the Board of Governors through January 2028; a separate Justice Department investigation into Powell concluded two weeks ago without criminal charges, and the department said it would not pursue the matter further, per CNBC. The White House has also criticized a third governor, Michael Barr, over his involvement as the Fed's top bank regulator in the 2023 failure of Silicon Valley Bank, but stopped short of calling for his resignation.

Policy backdrop

The move follows Trump's recent complaints, cited by CNBC, that a "hostile" Fed board is responsible for his handpicked chair Kevin Warsh failing to cut rates. The Fed raised its benchmark rate by a quarter point last month to 3.75–4 percent, the first hike in three years, Al Jazeera reported, with the Guardian attributing the decision to elevated inflation brought on by the war in the Middle East. Al Jazeera also noted that CME FedWatch, which tracks the probability of monetary policy decisions, forecasts rates will likely remain unchanged at the Fed's final rate decision before this month's midterm elections.

Bottom Line

Trump has set a concrete date and procedure for weighing Cook's removal, but the White House's own memo leaves the ultimate decision, and its timing, entirely with the president. CNBC notes the Supreme Court's ruling establishes that courts may review the president's determination of cause — an interpretation of the record that suggests any removal would face further litigation rather than settle the matter. That combination of a fast-moving hearing calendar and an open-ended legal endgame is likely to keep Cook's status an unresolved question for the Fed's board well beyond Nov. 5.