Washington –President Donald Trump says he is firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook late Monday, in a move viewed as a sharp escalation in his battle to exert greater control over the independent institution.

Trump said in a letter posted on his Truth Social platform Monday that he is firing Cook because of allegations that she committed mortgage fraud. The allegation was made last week by Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the Federal Housing Administration, an agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Cook previously said she would not leave her post.

Trump has repeatedly attacked the Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, for not cutting its short-term interest rate, and even threatened to fire him. Powell, who will speak Friday at an economic symposium in Jackson Hol

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