US President Donald Trump moved to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook "effective immediately" on Monday, citing allegations of false statements on her mortgage agreements -- as he expanded pressure on the independent central bank.

Referring to the Federal Reserve Act as justification, Trump wrote in a letter addressed to Cook: "I have determined that there is sufficient cause to remove you from your position."

A US president is generally limited in their ability to remove officials from the central bank, with a Supreme Court order recently suggesting that Fed officials can only be removed for "cause," which could be interpreted to mean malfeasance or dereliction of duty.

But the US leader pointed to a criminal referral dated August 15 from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's direc

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