Fed chief Powell to attend Supreme Court arguments on Trump bid to fire Lisa Cook

Source: CNBC

Published Mon, Jan 19 2026 2:02 PM EST Updated 14 Min Ago


Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell plans to attend oral arguments on Wednesday at the Supreme Court in a case challenging the power of President Donald Trump to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook, a person familiar with the situation told CNBC on Monday.

Powell’s planned attendance comes as the Fed chairman is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., in connection with a multi-billion-dollar renovation of the central bank’s headquarters and his testimony to Congress about that project. The Associated Press first reported on Powell’s plans.

For Powell to personally attend oral arguments in such a case is unusual. But the question of whether a president can fire a Fed governor in the manner that Trump has attempted is viewed within the central bank as having potentially existential consequences.

Powell, in an extraordinary public statement on Jan. 11, revealed that he was under criminal investigation, and called its purported grounds a pretext for its real reason: the refusal of the Fed’s Board of Governors, which includes him and Cook as members, to lower interest rates as quickly as Trump demanded last year. “The threat of criminal charges 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 preferences of the President,” Powell said.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/19/fed-powell-supreme-court-trump-lisa-cook.html