A federal judge in Washington D.C., temporarily blocked President Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook late Tuesday night.

The ruling stymies Trump's aggressive effort to exercise more control over the central bank, at least for now.

Federal District Judge Jia Cobb granted Cook a preliminary injunction, finding that the president's effort to remove Cook likely violated the Federal Reserve Act. Under that law, designed to insulate the central bank from political interference, Fed governors can only be removed "for cause." Judge Cobb found that in order to warrant firing, the cause would likely be limited to bad conduct while in office.

Trump had sought to fire Cook on the basis of unproven allegations that she had made false statements on a mortgage application in 2021,

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