Stefania Cox is an NTD News anchor and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Stefania anchors "NTD Newsroom," and co-anchors "NTD News Today" weekdays at 10:00 am ET.

Stefania Cox

NTD Plus

News

We present news that is truthful and based on facts, outside of the political fog. Instead of focusing on the negative things happening around us, our mission is to give our viewers a good morning with empathetic and uplifting stories. Our aim is to provide an antidote to negativity by shining a light on the best side of people. We speak to inspiring people who positively impact communities, pursue topics that represent our common human values, and will never miss an opportunity to bring you heartwarming stories.

NTD Good Morning

Switching Bank Accounts: Is It Worth It?

Cary Dunst is the news anchor for NTD Evening News. He is also the co-host of NTD Good Morning.


Cary Dunst

The IRGC and Mullah Regime Are Intertwined, Explains Expert

NTD Newsroom comprises teams of reporters, editors, and producers assigned to cover breaking news and other stories.


NTD Newsroom

At Least 18 Killed in Heavy Russian Attack on Ukrainian Cities

Trump Admin Reports Progress in DC Beautification

Daniel Monaghan is a reporter for NTD News covering culture, social issues, and education. He holds a BA in Political Science and Government.

Daniel Monaghan

British University Student Warns of Campus Bias Against Conservatives

Iris Tao is NTD's White House correspondent based in Washington. Prior to her work at the White House, Iris reported on U.S. politics and U.S.–China relations from NTD’s New York headquarters. She holds degrees in journalism and economics from Boston University.

Iris Tao

Trump Persuades Israel's Netanyahu to Call Off Beirut Strike

FIFA Opens International Broadcast Center Ahead of 2026 World Cup

CBP Arrests 52 Illegal Immigrants, Including 36 Truck Drivers, in Operation Checkmate

4 Charged Over Underground Cross-Border Drug Tunnel

Curfew in Effect, Police Control Expanded Around Newark ICE Detention Center

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (June 2)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (June 1)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 29)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 28)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 27)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 26)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 25)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 22)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 21)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 20)

The Associated Press is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. 

The Associated Press

US News

State News

California

More Than 17,000 Under Evacuation Orders as Southern California Wildfire Threatens Homes

Joseph Lord is a congressional reporter for The Epoch Times.


Joseph Lord

Aldgra Fredly is a freelance writer covering U.S. and Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.

Aldgra Fredly

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized in Critical Condition: Spokesman

Rudy Blalock is a Southern California-based daily news reporter for NTD. Originally from Michigan, he moved to California in 2017 and the sunshine and ocean have kept him here since. In his free time, he may be found underwater scuba diving, on top of a mountain hiking or snowboarding, or at home meditating—which helps fuel his active lifestyle.

Rudy Blalock

40,000 Ordered to Evacuate as Chemical Tank Leaks, Threatens Explosion in California

Video of US Fighter Jet Shooting Down UFO Over Lake Huron Emerges in New Pentagon Files

Ryan Morgan is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on military and foreign affairs. He was previously a news writer for NTD. 


Ryan Morgan

Mari Otsu is NTD's White House correspondent based in Washington. 

Mari Otsu

World News

Middle East

Iran

3 US Warships Fend Off Iranian Attacks, Trump Says Ceasefire Still Holds

News you can trust from the U.S. and around the world. Critical information and insight. We cover the stories that others don’t. NTD News Today airs Monday–Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

NTD News Today

US Government Sues Chick-fil-A Over Religious Rights

Sports News

Kyle Busch, Two-Time NASCAR Champion, Dies at 41

Health News

3 Dead in Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak on Cruise Ship in Atlantic Ocean: WHO

Haika Mrema

Medical Plane Crash in New Mexico Mountains Kills 4, Sparks Wildfire

California Mayor Resigns, Will Plead Guilty to Acting as Chinese Agent

Gary Bai is a reporter for Epoch Times Canada, covering China and U.S. news.

Gary Bai

A panel of federal judges on Monday held that President Donald Trump cannot fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook as of now, one day before the Fed’s two-day meeting on whether to lower interest rates.

The late-night order by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down Trump’s emergency bid to set aside a preliminary ruling by a lower court, which barred Trump from removing Cook for alleged mortgage fraud pending the outcome of litigation between Trump and Cook.

The appeals court’s opinion came a day before a two-day rate-setting hearing, known as a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, during which the Fed will consider whether to cut federal interest rates. Without a last-minute intervention by the Supreme Court, the Fed’s interest rate-setting committee will meet Sept. 16–17 with all seven governors and the 12 regional bank presidents, with a rate decision expected on Wednesday afternoon.

The appeals court hinged its decision on the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which guarantees the rights of citizens against government removal of their property interests without the due process of law.

The government “failed to provide Cook even minimal process—that is, notice of the allegation against her and a meaningful opportunity to respond—before she was purportedly removed,” Circuit Judge Bradley Garcia wrote in the court’s Monday opinion. Circuit Judge J. Michelle Childs voted in agreement with Garcia.

Because Cook has a property interest in her position, and the government had not provided her with advanced notice and an opportunity for a hearing before removing her, Trump cannot fire her pending the outcome of this lawsuit, the court decided.

Monday’s order means that Cook can remain in her role pending the outcome of her lawsuit against Trump that challenges his decision to fire her. A lower court ruled last week that Cook’s case had a “reasonable likelihood of success,” a rationale it used to issue an injunction against Trump’s order.

The third judge, Gregory Katsas, said in a dissenting statement that he would have granted the president’s request, because the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 gives Trump ample authority to remove Cook, Katsas wrote in his dissent.

“The President plainly invoked a cause relating to Cook’s conduct, ability, fitness, or competence,” Judge Katsas wrote in his dissent. “The allegations against Cook could constitute mortgage fraud if she acted knowingly, and that is a felony offense.”

“And the President specifically concluded that the allegations cast doubt on Cook’s ‘competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator,’” he added.

As to the Court’s due process concerns, Katsas opined that because Cook is a public servant, she serves “in a position of public ‘trust’” and, commonsensically, “does not have a ‘private property’ right to wield ‘governmental powers’ in our democratic system of government.”

Monday’s court order sets back Trump’s plan to shape the makeup of the Federal Reserve’s leadership, an objective that he had announced on Aug. 26, one day after his move to fire Cook.
<h2>Alleged Mortgage Fraud</h2>
The publicized controversy began when the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), William Pulte, posted Aug. 20 on <a href="https://x.com/pulte/status/1958138434171629636">X</a> that a criminal referral letter accusing Cook of committing mortgage fraud in June and July 2021, before she was nominated and confirmed to the Board of Governors.

Trump, in a Truth Social <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115061104213677946">post</a> half an hour later, wrote, “Cook must resign, now!!!” and shared a link to an article regarding the allegations. Five days later, <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/trump-fires-federal-reserve-governor-lisa-cook-5906052">Trump</a> posted a letter, dated Aug. 25 and addressed to Cook, stating that she is “removed from [her] position on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately.”

Her alleged misconduct “exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question [her] competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator,” the president wrote.

Three days later, Cook filed the current lawsuit at the district court in the District of Columbia, which gave rise to this lawsuit. District Court judge Jia M. Cobb then filed a preliminary injunction against Trump’s removal of Cook, barring Trump from removing Cook pending the result of the litigation. On Sept. 11, Trump asked the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to set aside this injunction, a request now denied by the Court of Appeals.
<h2>‘For Cause’</h2>
One of two issues in the case concerns the extent of the president’s ability to remove a Federal Reserve official “for cause,” a term in the Federal Reserve Act that qualifies the president’s authority to remove the official.

The answer to that legal question is significant because it could determine Trump’s ability to shape the makeup of federal agency leadership in a way more aligned with his policy agenda.

Because Trump based his rationale for removing her on alleged misconduct that occurred before Cook’s confirmation—instead of behavior during her term—his decision to fire Cook is not grounded in “good cause” and runs afoul of Congress’s intent when they passed the law, the lower court wrote in its opinion last week.

But the government’s lawyers say that’s not an issue, because the statute provides the president discretion to remove Cook, and that his decision to do so is not subject to review by the courts.

“The bottom line is that the statute provides for the President to remove a Governor ‘for cause,’” the government’s lawyer wrote in a Sept. 4 reply brief to Cook’s complaint. “The President exercised that authority after public revelations of Dr. Cook’s mortgage misconduct; and there is no basis in the statute, the Constitution, or principles of equity for a district court to second-guess that determination, let alone to order reinstatement.”

Not letting the president remove Cook “would insulate all manner of gross wrongdoing” and preclude the president from “removing a Governor who was revealed to have committed massive financial fraud—so long as it happened before confirmation,” the government’s lawyer wrote in another brief filed on Aug. 29.

The lower court disagreed, citing two cases—one recent and one dating back to the 19th century—that establish the authority of the court to review decisions by other parts of the government.

“Even when a statute ‘delegates discretionary authority’ to an actor, the ‘role of the reviewing court ... is, as always, to independently interpret the statute and effectuate the will of Congress subject to constitutional limits,’” the court wrote.

“It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is,” the court added.

The commonsensical reason that the president can’t remove Federal Reserve officials for arbitrary reasons has to do with the design and the purpose of the agency itself, the lower court wrote.

“Sound monetary policy often involves making short-term sacrifices for the long-term good of the economy,” the court wrote in its decision on Tuesday. “Congress therefore designed the Federal Reserve and the Board of Governors to possess characteristics that reflect their insulation from other parts of the federal government, in particular with respect to the Board’s monetary policy decisions,” the court wrote.

“Board members are appointed to staggered 14-year terms, which, notwithstanding unexpected vacancies, typically prevents any single administration from appointing a majority of the Board’s members and further shields the Board from partisan influences.”

In other words, because the Federal Reserve must make unpopular decisions, insulating the Federal Reserve from political influences is crucial for it to make sound monetary policy.

By doing so, “Congress sought to ensure that the Federal Reserve would ‘reflect, not the opinion of a majority of special interests,’ but a body that takes into consideration all phases of national economic life,” the court wrote in its opinion last week.

<em>From <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/trump-cannot-remove-fed-governor-lisa-cook-for-now-appeals-court-rules-5915580">The Epoch Times</a></em>

Latest

Paywall Related

Videos

Business News

Politics

04_Top Stories

Latest Clips

Free for Subscribers

Management

03_Featured

02_Second Lead

Executive Branch

Courts

Donald Trump

Latest and breaking news, documentaries, movies, and lifestyle content on NTD+.
 
Empower your knowledge and elevate your spirit with NTD+, your go-to destination for truthful news, insightful documentaries, and captivating lifestyle content that enriches your life.

Trump Cannot Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook for Now, Appeals Court Rules

Andrew Moran has been writing about business, economics, and finance for more than a decade. He is the author of "The War on Cash."

Andrew Moran

Senate Confirms Trump Pick Stephen Miran to Join Federal Reserve

Travis Gillmore is an avid reader and journalism connoisseur based in California covering finance, politics, the State Capitol, and breaking news for The Epoch Times.

Travis Gillmore

Trump Sending National Guard, Task Force to Memphis to Combat Crime

TIFF Special Presentation: A Pale View of Hills

Bots From Russia, China Trying to Tear Nation Apart After Kirk Assassination: Expert

Sherry Ning is a reporter based at NTD's global headquarters in New York City, where she covers local news.