Lawyer for Fed's Cook, targeted by Trump, says there are no grounds for dismissal

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.