DOJ Takes Trump’s Revenge With Criminal Probe Into Ousted Fed Governor
Donald Trump has fully weaponized the Department of Justice.

President Trump’s Justice Department is opening a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in an attempt to pressure her into dropping her lawsuit against the administration, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The department has already issued grand jury subpoenas in Georgia and Michigan, according to officials familiar with the matter.
Last month, Trump fired Cook, claiming she committed mortgage fraud by listing two of her homes as primary residences. In reality, it’s most likely that Trump was upset at her for maintaining the Fed’s independence and refusing to raise interest rates to the level Trump requested.
Cook in turn sued Trump for trying to fire her, and a judge is considering her emergency request to stop her dismissal while her lawsuit continues. The Fed’s next meeting is September 16. Her lawsuit noted that the allegations against her are “pretextual, in order to effectuate her prompt removal and vacate a seat for President Trump to fill and forward his agenda to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve.”
“President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook,” her lawyer Abbe Lowell said in a statement. “His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis. We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action.”
The DOJ’s criminal probe is a clear intimidation campaign that reflects Trump’s greater takeover of federal agencies, turning them from politically neutral entities that transcend politics to faceless organizations that do his bidding and his bidding only. Cook and some of her colleagues—like CDC Director Susan Monarez—haven’t caved yet. We’ll see if the criminal investigation changes that.