Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the Hoover Institution’s George P. Shulz Memorial Lecture Series on Monday, December 1, 2025 in Stanford, California.
Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s authority to remove Fed Director Lisa Cook, a person familiar with the situation told CNBC on Monday.
Mr. Powell’s scheduled appearance comes as the Fed chairman is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., over his multibillion-dollar plan to renovate the central bank’s headquarters and his testimony in Congress about the plan.
The Associated Press first reported Powell’s plan.
It is unusual for Mr. Powell to personally attend oral arguments in a case like this.
But the question of whether the president can fire Fed directors, as Trump has attempted to do, is seen as a potentially existential issue within the central bank.
In a rare public statement on January 11, Chairman Powell revealed that he was under criminal investigation and claimed that the real reason was that the Fed’s board, which includes him and Cook, refused to cut interest rates as quickly as President Trump called for last year.
“The threat of criminal charges is the result of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on its best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the wishes of the president,” Powell said.
In late August, President Trump announced that Cook would be removed from the seven-member Federal Reserve Board due to allegations of mortgage fraud related to two homes he owned.
Cook has denied any wrongdoing and she has not been charged with any crime.
She filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to block Trump’s removal from office.
A district court judge on September 9 blocked President Trump from firing her while the lawsuit continues. A federal appeals court upheld the order shortly thereafter.
In a filing with the Supreme Court, the Justice Department said the lower court’s order barring Cook’s removal “is yet another example of unwarranted judicial interference against the president.”
Removal Power – Here, interference with the President’s power to remove members of the Federal Reserve Board for cause. ”
