Trump Establishes Due Process After Reaching Verdict
President Donald Trump established a committee to determine why Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook deserves the firing he already announced, resolving the centuries-old inefficiency of conducting due process before punishment. The three-member “committee of inquiry” will review allegations that Cook made false statements on mortgage documents and recommend whether cause exists to remove her, provided the evidence arrives at the conclusion assigned in advance.
The panel includes Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas and acting Office of Government Ethics Director Keith Sonderling, offering the broad ideological range available among three officials chosen by the same president to confirm the same presidential judgment. Cook must attend a closed-door White House hearing on Nov. 5, where she will exercise the cherished American right to explain herself to people whose task began only after Trump’s first attempt to remove her encountered judicial resistance.
“This will be the fairest hearing anybody has ever had, because we already know the answer, and knowing the answer means nobody can be unfairly distracted by evidence,” Trump said, outlining a constitutional innovation in which certainty substitutes for procedure. The Supreme Court blocked Cook’s immediate removal on June 29, ruling that she required notice and an opportunity to respond. The administration has now complied by providing notice that Cook may respond and an opportunity for officials to remain unmoved by whatever she says.
Supporters described the arrangement as a victory for Federal Reserve independence, noting that central bankers remain entirely free to make any interest-rate decision the president has independently selected for them. The committee will eventually submit written findings to Trump, allowing him to study the work of his own appointees before discovering, with complete institutional objectivity, that they agree with him. Due process has thus been fully preserved by relocating it to the period after the verdict, where it can no longer interfere with justice.
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