Trump administration moves ahead with efforts to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving ahead with its efforts to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, two months after the Supreme Court allowed her to retain her job while she fights the president’s effort to terminate her over mortgage fraud allegations that she has denied.

The justices, in a 5-4 decision in June, said Cook, who was nominated to the Fed’s Board of Governors by President Joe Biden, could remain in her post at least as long as her lawsuit challenging her firing goes on. The Trump administration is appealing a lower-court ruling in Cook's favor.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a footnote in his opinion that nothing forbids President Donald Trump from “trying again” to fire Cook, provided she is given proper notice and a chance to contest it. Trump indicated, after the opinion, that he would do just that, vowing to “take appropriate action immediately.”

In a letter this week obtained by The Associated Press, White House aide Dan Scavino told Cook that Trump was “considering removing you from your position” but cited the Supreme Court's requirement of proper notice in giving her until August 26 to challenge it.

The attempt to fire Cook is rooted in a criminal referral made last August by Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, that accused her of committing mortgage fraud by declaring two different homes – one in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and one in Atlanta – as “primary residence.’’ Homebuyers can get lower mortgage rates or smaller down payments on their primary homes compared to second or vacation homes.

Cook has aggressively defended herself against the allegations, saying the president had attempted to oust her “on a manufactured pretext because I refused to bow to political pressure and continued to set interest rates based only on what would best serve the American people.’’

Her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, argued in a November letter that Cook has mostly lived in the Ann Arbor property since first purchasing it in 2005. As a result, it was accurate for her to refer to it as her “primary residence” in a June 2021 application to refinance its mortgage, the letter said.

A month later, she purchased a condominium in Atlanta and, in a July 2021 document, also referred to it as her “primary residence.” Lowell said that it was an “isolated notation” that did not reflect an intent to defraud. An earlier mortgage application to the same lender in May 2021 had referred to the Atlanta condo as a “vacation home,” Lowell said. Cook also referred to it as a second home in federal filings during her confirmation process to become a Fed governor.

The latest White House letter largely rehashes the year-old allegations.

“These allegations are as baseless now as they were a year ago when President Trump tried to remove Governor Cook and interfere with the independence of the Federal Reserve,” Lowell said in a statement.

“No matter what President Trump tries to do next, this much is clear under the facts and Supreme Court precedent — there is no valid cause for removing Governor Cook. As we did before, we will challenge this latest pretext and preserve her position and the historic role of the Fed,” he added.

The logo of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors is seen before a news conference with Federal Reserve Board Chairman Kevin Warsh at the Federal Reserve in Washington, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Police released video Friday of a mass shooting that killed three people at an Idaho In-N-Out Burger, and heaped praise on a bystander who engaged the gunman on a trail, slowing him down and possibly preventing more deaths as authorities were catching up.

The video revealed more details of a chaotic scene in Twin Falls last weekend. The gunman walked up to the drive-thru window four times and opened fire, killing an In-N-Out employee, police said.

A total of 10 people were shot — inside the restaurant, directly outside, on an adjacent busy road and at a nearby visitors center lot, Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks said.

Hicks said at a news conference that investigators still don’t have a motive for the shooting. The gunman, Chad Williams, 24, killed himself.

“What happened here was violent, frightening and deeply traumatic,” Hicks said.

It should have been a “normal Saturday afternoon,” he said. “Employees showing up for work. Visitors coming to see our beautiful city. Instead they were confronted with chaos, fear and now loss.”

As the shooting unfolded, employees from nearby stores fled to a walking trail. When the gunman headed to the trail, he came across two people, including one with his hands in the air talking to him, according to the video.

He distracted the gunman from possibly pursuing others on the trail. Williams subsequently killed himself as police closed in. His body was found near a canyon.

“To that young man, you are a hero,” Hicks said. “Your courage, your composure, your selflessness in that moment likely gave others the time they needed to escape harm. This community is grateful for you, and we will never forget what you did that day.”

Hicks also praised the work of an off-duty state trooper and a former police officer, A.J. James, who was wounded while confronting Williams.

James ran toward the sound of gunfire from the drive-thru window and was shot and wounded, while the off-duty officer inside the In-N-Out exchanged gunfire with Williams through the window and directed workers out of the building, Hicks said.

He acted “heroically and unbelievably” to try to slow down the shooter, the police chief said, declining to release the off-duty officer's name.

Braxton Steube said he was the person who encountered Williams on the trail after fleeing a Dick's Sporting Good store.

“I said, ‘I have a family.’ I said, ‘You don’t have to do this. I’ll tell you whatever you want. I’ll do anything,'” Steube told KMVT-TV. “He started to like tear up a bit, it seemed. And he said to me, ‘Just get away from me, man.’”

Steube said the gunman shot at him and missed.

The Twin Falls In-N-Out, 130 miles (210 kilometers) southeast of Boise, the state capital, had opened in July as part of the chain’s expansion into Idaho.

Police identified those killed as Ashley Garibay, 23, of Stockton, California; Dale Schultz, 66, of Salt Lake City; and Christopher Claunch, 59, of Hagerman, Idaho.

Williams had briefly attended the College of Southern Idaho and previously lived in Arizona.

This image taken from video provided by the Twin Falls Police Department shows Chad Williams holding a gun and approaching a car in an In-N-Out drive-thru Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026, in Twin Falls, Idaho (Twin Falls Police Department via AP)

A woman prays during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, in Twin Falls, Idaho, to honor the victims of a recent shooting at a local In-N-Out Burger. (AP Photo/Andrew Eakin)