A lawyer for Lisa Cook on Friday urged a U.S. judge to let the Federal Reserve governor keep her job while she fights President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire her in a stunning assault on the central bank’s independence.

The case in the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. could provide Trump with expansive power over the Fed, which has traditionally been shielded from political pressure as it makes tough, complicated decisions about whether to raise interest rates to fight inflation or lower them to encourage hiring and economic growth.

Trump has sought to fire Cook over allegations that she committed mortgage fraud when she purchased a home and condo in 2021, the year before President Joe Biden appointed her to the Fed’s governing board.

The allegations remain just that, leveled by Bill Pulte, Trump’s appointee to the agency that oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

And late Thursday, Pulte, said that Cook had allegedly committed fraud on a third property, a condominium in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in April 2021.

"This really has nothing to do with the Fed. It has much to do with public officials," Pulte told reporters outside the White House Tuesday.

"If you're going to be in charge of the Federal Reserve, damn, you better sure know how to fill out a mortgage application. And boy, it's awfully weird that she potentially saved a lot of money by making so-called clerical errors, which were not clerical errors," Pulte added.

Pulte also alleged, without evidence, that Cook may have rented out two properties in Ann Arbor, Mich. and Atlanta, which were the focus of a criminal referral he made last week and which he said she has claimed as her principal residence.

In a statement, Cook’s lawyer, Lowell, decried “an obvious smear campaign aimed at discrediting Gov. Cook ... Nothing in these vague, unsubstantiated allegations has any relevance to Gov. Cook’s role at the Federal Reserve, and they in no way justify her removal from the Board.”

Trump has repeatedly criticized the Fed — and its chair, Jerome Powell — for refusing to cut interest rates. The central bank has left its benchmark rate unchanged this year, partly because it is waiting to see whether the big taxes — tariffs — that Trump is slapping on foreign products will push inflation higher. Cook has voted against a cut, along with most board members.

If Cook’s firing is allowed to stand, it would likely erode the Fed’s longstanding independence from day-to-day politics. No president has ever fired a Fed governor in the agency’s 112-year history. Economists broadly support Fed independence because it makes it easier for the central bank to take unpopular steps such as raising interest rates.

Cook has asked the court to issue an emergency order that would prevent her firing and enable her to remain on the seven-member board of governors while her lawsuit to the overturn the firing makes its way through the courts. The case may end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.