U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at the Hoover Institution’s George P. Shultz Memorial Lecture Series in Stanford, California, U.S., Monday, December 1, 2025.
Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell plans to attend oral arguments Wednesday at Supreme Court in a case challenging the power of the President Donald Trump fire the Fed governor Lisa Cooka person familiar with the matter told CNBC on Monday.
Powell’s planned participation comes as the Fed chair is in criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., in a multibillion-dollar case renovation of the central bank headquarters and his testimony to Congress on this project.
The associated press first reported on Powell’s plans.
For Powell to personally attend pleadings in such a case it is unusual.
But the question of whether a president can fire a Fed governor in the way Trump attempted is seen within the central bank as having potentially existential consequences.
Powell, in an extraordinary context public statement on January 11revealed he was under criminal investigation and called his alleged motives a pretext for his real reason: the refusal of the Fed Board of Governors, of which he and Cook are members, to lower interest rates as quickly as Trump demanded last year.
“The threat of criminal prosecution is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the president’s preferences,” Powell said.
Read more about CNBC’s politics coverageTrump declared in late August that he to cook of the Fed’s seven-member board, citing allegations that she committed mortgage fraud in connection with two homes she owns.
Cook denies any wrongdoing and she has not been charged with any crimes.
She sued Trump in federal court in Washington, seeking to block his deportation.
On September 9, a district court judge barred Trump from firing her while the trial continued. Shortly thereafter, a federal appeals court upheld the order.
The Justice Department, in documents filed with the Supreme Court, called lower court orders barring Cook’s firing “yet another case of improper judicial interference with the President’s action.”
removal authority – here, interference with the power of the President to remove members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve for cause.