Trump launches inquiry into Fed Governor Lisa Cook, sets Nov. 5 hearing

President Trump on Friday announced a new investigative committee and a White House hearing on November 5 to examine mortgage-application allegations against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, the latest and most formal effort yet in his more than year-long campaign to remove her from the central bank.

The hearing date is the detail that gives the story away: two days after the midterm elections. The administration has been trying to oust Cook since last year. In June, the Supreme Court denied the administration's emergency application to remove her, and she remains in office under lower-court protection. Now the White House is moving the fight into a formal committee process with a hearing scheduled in the first days after voters go to the polls.

Cook's lawyers responded that a fair hearing would show there is "no legal basis" for her removal, and they have consistently denied the underlying allegations about her mortgage applications.

This is about more than one governor. The Federal Reserve's independence from presidential pressure is one of the load-bearing walls of the American economy, and Trump has spent his second term testing every one of those walls. An official White House investigative committee aimed at removing a sitting Fed governor, with a hearing dated just after the election, puts the question of central bank independence on the ballot even though Cook's name is not on it. Markets will watch the November hearing closely: the Fed is expected to weigh further rate hikes into next year, and traders have to price not just inflation and growth now, but whether the institution setting rates can keep operating free of political command.