Dr. Sohan Dasgupta, appointed earlier this year as the political head of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), told Fox News Digital he is stepping down after a four-month sprint, declaring his mission to preserve and reposition the U.S. agency as a strategic foreign policy tool as ‘accomplished.’

Created by Congress in 2004, MCC delivers five-year infrastructure and energy compacts to developing nations that meet strict governance standards. Unlike traditional aid, its investments are structured to drive long-term economic growth and open markets for U.S. companies.

Since its creation under President George W. Bush, MCC has often been grouped with other U.S. aid programs. 

Career staff have long emphasized development goals like poverty reduction, education, and infrastructure, but unlike USAID, MCC was established as a corporate body with a fiduciary duty to ensure effectiveness.

A White House official, speaking on background to Fox News Digital, argued the agency too often presented itself as aid rather than investment before President Donald Trump took office.

Dasgupta pushed staff to adopt a different lens, pressing them to evaluate projects based on the return on investment for the United States, the degree of strategic alignment with partner countries, and whether MCC compacts could be used to strengthen U.S. leverage in negotiations.

A Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report this spring argued that MCC is not a traditional aid agency but an ‘investment’ tool uniquely suited for an ‘America First’ agenda. 

The authors warned shuttering it would hand China ‘diplomatic and economic wins’ while leaving half-built projects abroad, and noted Trump-era partner selections, from Nepal to Côte d’Ivoire to the Pacific Islands, were strategically chosen to counter Chinese influence. 

‘The United States and the world are safer, stronger, and more prosperous with the MCC model than without it,’ the report concluded.

MCC’s current portfolio under Trump includes some of its largest-ever compacts: a $500 million deal in Nepal funding nearly 200 miles of transmission lines, a $480 million compact in Sierra Leone expanding electricity access and a $202 million program in Kosovo focused on grid-scale battery storage. Other investments include $536 million in Côte d’Ivoire, $537 million in Mozambique and a water compact in Mongolia.

Dasgupta told Fox News Digital that his role was to press MCC staff to think in terms of U.S. national security and economic benefits. ‘Reforming MCC into a vital national security and foreign policy asset’ was how he described his ‘mission accomplished’ moment.

A May 9 email from the White House Liaison to MCC staff, obtained by Fox News Digital, shows Dasgupta was appointed as a Schedule C Senior Advisor ‘assuming political leadership for the agency.’

MCC’s Fiscal Year 2026 Candidate Country Report, released this month, lists Kosovo, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Mongolia, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga among its eligible partner nations.

‘Service has many forms. My goal was to carry out particular projects and missions, then make way for others,’ Dasgupta said.

On China, he added: ‘Critical minerals and rare earth elements are a vital part of American strength … MCC has really understood that.’

Kosovo’s ambassador to the U.S., Ilir Dugolli, praised Dasgupta’s responsiveness. ‘We worked closely soon after he arrived at MCC … I respect him enormously for the way he handled his portfolio and how professional he was,’ Dugolli told Fox News Digital.

On energy security, Dugolli said: ‘Kosovo fully aligns with U.S. foreign policy … Batteries are extremely important, especially after last year’s terrorist attack on the Iber-Lepenc canal. The compact is the single most critical investment for our country’s energy security and economic resilience.’

Dasgupta’s departure also comes as the Trump administration pursues cuts to traditional U.S. foreign aid programs and seeks to reframe America’s global engagement under its ‘America First’ policy. 

While agencies such as USAID have faced reductions and restructuring, Dasgupta argues the MCC has been preserved as a leaner, investment-driven tool aligned with the administration’s emphasis on strategic deals and competition with China.

Analysts estimate China controls about 70% of global rare earth mining and nearly 90% of processing capacity, according to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. 

Between 2023 and 2025, China imposed export restrictions on strategic minerals, according to CSIS. Dasgupta argues MCC’s work in allied nations can help diversify supply chains and strengthen resilience, though MCC has not publicly described critical minerals as a formal focus of its work.

‘Quick wins’ like Kosovo’s battery project and Nepal’s power lines, Dasgupta said, show how American aid can advance prosperity abroad while reinforcing security at home.

With his departure, MCC continues compacts in dozens of countries worldwide. 

The MCC did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is demanding that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resign after multiple senior officials at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention departed the agency.

The Trump administration announced the removal of CDC Director Susan Monarez earlier this week, less than a month after she was confirmed, after she refused Kennedy’s directives to adopt new limitations on the availability of some vaccines, including for approvals for COVID-19 vaccines.

Four other senior CDC officials resigned in protest after Monarez’s ouster, pointing, in part, to anti-vaccine policies pushed by Kennedy. Hundreds of workers at the agency also walked out of the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta in support of their former colleagues.

In response to the departures, Sanders wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times that Kennedy is ‘endangering the health of the American people now and into the future’ and accused the secretary of firing Monarez because she refused ‘to act as a rubber stamp for his dangerous policies.’

‘Despite the overwhelming opposition of the medical community, Secretary Kennedy has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that have been rejected repeatedly by scientific experts,’ Sanders wrote in the piece published Saturday.

‘It is absurd to have to say this in 2025, but vaccines are safe and effective,’ he added. ‘That, of course, is not just my view. Far more important, it is the overwhelming consensus of the medical and scientific communities.’

Sanders also noted that vaccines for diseases like polio and COVID-19 have saved hundreds of millions of lives around the world.

Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate’s health committee, opposed Kennedy’s confirmation earlier this year. The secretary was sworn in back in February. Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill was selected to be the acting director of the CDC after Monarez’s termination.

The Trump administration has defended Monarez’s ouster, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying Thursday the president has the ‘authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.’

‘The president and Secretary Kennedy are committed to restoring trust and transparency and credibility to the CDC by ensuring their leadership and their decisions are more public-facing, more accountable, strengthening our public health system and restoring it to its core mission of protecting Americans from communicable diseases, investing in innovation to prevent, detect and respond to future threats,’ Leavitt told reporters.

Sanders earlier this week called for an investigation into Monarez’s ouster, criticizing the move as ‘reckless’ and ‘dangerous.’

In the op-ed, he wrote that Kennedy ‘has profited from and built a career on sowing mistrust in vaccines,’ adding that the secretary is now ‘using his authority to launch a full-blown war on science, on public health and on truth itself.’ 

He also said it will become harder for Americans to obtain ‘lifesaving vaccines’ with Kennedy leading HHS.

‘The danger here is that diseases that have been virtually wiped out because of safe and effective vaccines will resurface and cause enormous harm,’ Sanders wrote, stressing that the U.S. needs to be better prepared in the case of another pandemic.

‘Secretary Kennedy is putting Americans’ lives in danger, and he must resign,’ Sanders wrote. ‘In his place, President Trump must listen to doctors and scientists and nominate a health secretary and a C.D.C. director who will protect the health and well-being of the American people, not carry out dangerous policies based on conspiracy theories.’

Fox News Digital reached out to HHS for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday that it had killed the Houthi prime minister and several other senior officials in a strike in Yemen. 

‘Houthi Prime Minister, Ahmed Al-Rahawi, along with additional senior officials of the Houthi terrorist regime were eliminated during an IDF strike in Sanaa, Yemen,’ the IDF said in a social media post.

The IDF said it had targeted a Houthi site where officials responsible ‘for the use of force, the military buildup of the Houthi terror regime, and the advancement of terror actions against Israel. The IDF will continue to target all threats against Israeli civilians.’ 

The airstrike was conducted by the Israeli Air Force Thursday using intelligence gathered by the IDF. 

‘The strike was made possible by seizing an intelligence opportunity and completing a rapid operational cycle, which took place within a few hours,’ the IDF said. 

A Houthi statement confirmed Al-Rahawi’s death. 

It was Israel’s second strike against the Houthis in Yemen in a week. 

On Sunday, Israel hit Yemen’s capital in response to missiles fired by the Houthis. The attack killed six people and wounded 86 others, according to Reuters, which cited a Houthi Health Ministry spokesperson.

‘As we warned the Houthis in Yemen: ‘After the plague of darkness comes the plague of the death,’’ said Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, who was in the IDF central command during the attack. ‘Whoever raises a hand against Israel, their hand will be cut off.’

The IDF previously said the Houthis were operating under Iran’s direction to harm Israel and its allies. The IDF also blamed the Houthis for ‘undermining regional stability and disrupting global freedom of navigation.’ 

The strikes Thursday were launched after Israel intercepted two drones from Yemen and happened during a speech by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi, according to YNet. Additionally, the Israeli outlet reported that the speech went on without interruption.

The conflict between Israel and the Houthis has gone on for nearly two years. 

The Iran-backed terror force threatened to strike Israel just days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre. Within weeks of Hamas’ attacks, the Houthis shot missiles and drones at Israel that were intercepted by U.S. forces aboard the USS Carney.

The Houthis have continued to attack Israel in support to Hamas. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

For Dyan Cannon, age is more than just a number.

The ‘Heaven Can Wait’ actress, 88, attempted to go inside the White House this week, but as she and her friends documented in a video shared on social media, the Secret Service refused to let her enter because of an age discrepancy on her passport.

Cannon, along with fellow actresses Kym Douglas and Tracey Bregman and TV personality and chef Christine Avanti-Fischer, traveled to Washington, D.C., together recently. The group hosts a new podcast, ‘God’s Table.’ 

They went out to do some sightseeing, but there was a hiccup in their plans.

‘We are lined up for a great tour, and we have these Secret Service guys and all of the federal agents. We can’t get in because someone lied about their age,’ Douglas, who filmed the video, explained.

Cannon laughed throughout the explanation as Bregman and Avanti-Fischer teased her.

‘Listen,’ Cannon said. ‘Years ago, here’s the thing, I lied about my age on my passport.’

‘Who doesn’t, Dyan?’ Douglas joked.

Avanti-Fischer remarked, ‘If we get in, it’s going to be a miracle of God.’

The video was originally shared by Douglas on her Instagram story Thursday, but Cannon reposted it to her own page, writing in her caption, ‘And I’d do it again.’

She added, ‘It’s nobody’s business what the number is they’ve pinned on me ….right girls? Right guys? it’s just a blinkin number… no matter what number they put next to me there’s one thing that never changes …I WUV WU’

Bregman commented on the post, writing, ‘Hilarious. Love you so but seriously, how can I change my age.’

Cannon has been a force in the entertainment industry for decades. She got her start in show business by appearing in various TV shows in the 1950s, and, in 1962, she appeared in her first Broadway show.

Her breakthrough role came in 1969, when she appeared in ‘Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,’ a role that earned her her first Academy Award nomination.

She was later nominated for the award for best live action short film for 1976’s ‘Number One,’ which she produced. This nod made her the first woman nominated for an Oscar for her work in front of and behind the camera.

Cannon has also had a storied love life, which included marrying legendary actor Cary Grant in 1965. The couple welcomed one daughter, Jennifer, before divorcing in 1968.

She got married a second time in 1985 to real estate investor Stanley Fimberg, but the couple split in 1991. She also had what she once called a ‘love affair’ with Johnny Carson.

Earlier this year, she told People that ‘of course’ she’s still dating.

She told the outlet she was seeing ‘somebody very special,’ then clarified that she was actually seeing ‘several special [people]. … I have friends with benefits, yes.’

Lawmakers could soon have Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous ‘birthday book,’ which could potentially give insight into the disgraced late financier’s social ties. 

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who serves as the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, told MSNBC on Friday that Epstein’s estate ‘is actually going to actually now get us that book and a bunch of other documents that they have that’s not actually been reported yet.’ He added that the lawmakers expect to receive the book and the documents on Sept. 8.

Garcia also told MSNBC that ‘many of the victims’ of Epstein would speak to lawmakers on Capitol Hill next week to ‘highlight their stories.’ He did not name the lawmakers or accusers expected to meet.

The release date is confirmed in the subpoena signed by House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. The specific deadline listed in the subpoena is Sept. 8 at 12 p.m.

‘The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is reviewing the possible mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell, the circumstances and subsequent investigations of Mr. Epstein’s death, the operation of sex-trafficking rings and ways for the federal government to effectively combat them, and potential violations of ethics rules related to elected officials,’ Comer stated in a cover letter that accompanied the subpoena.

‘Recent reporting indicates the estate of Mr. Epstein has access to documents relevant to the Committee’s investigation, including the alleged ‘birthday book’ prepared for Mr. Epstein by Ms. Maxwell… It is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell,’ Comer added.

READ THE LETTER BELOW. APP USERS CLICK HERE:

House Oversight Democrats released a statement Monday supporting the subpoena for the book and calling on former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and Trump Labor Secretary Alex Acosta to testify before Congress. He is expected to appear for a closed-door transcribed interview next month.

With a federal probe of the case under way, lawmakers have sought the testimony of several former high-ranking officials, such as former Attorney General Bill Barr. While Barr testified before lawmakers, Democrats, such as Reps. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., and Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, were not pleased with Republicans’ questions.

Comer, who argued those accusations were baseless, implored Democrats not to politicize a bipartisan investigation. Divisions deepened after Comer said Barr had no knowledge of, nor did he believe there were any implications of wrongdoing on President Donald Trump’s part related to Epstein.

Garcia disagreed. Though he did not attend the deposition, he said in a statement that Barr did not clear Trump.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

Demetre Daskalakis, an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), resigned this week, claiming the Trump administration’s policies ignore science. However, his own leadership during the Biden-era monkeypox response was criticized for putting optics over public health.

Amid the Trump administration’s efforts to push out CDC Director Susan Monarez, a handful of other top CDC officials, including Daskalakis, resigned in protest of the Trump administration’s policies. Daskalakis wrote in his resignation letter that was posted to social media that the health policies put forward by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy do not ‘reflect scientific reality.’ He also accused the Trump administration of attempting to ‘erase transgender populations,’ while also using the term ‘pregnant people’ to describe women who are about to give birth.

But flashback to 2022 and 2023, after the monkeypox virus had spread across several countries and made its way into the U.S., during which Daskalakis was among the Biden administration’s top advisers who spearheaded the national response to the disease outbreak. 

Government communications from that time period, uncovered by watchdog group the Oversight Project, show that officials were aware that the disease was spreading among the gay community. However, those communications, and other records, show the administration appeared to be more concerned with protecting the stigma targeting the gay community, than they were with implementing measures that would provide the best mitigation response.

‘A common theme was public health officials identifying locations where outbreaks occurred, to include bathhouses and saunas,’ according to the Oversight Project. ‘Officials never broached consideration of shutting down these locations. This draws a stark contrast to the public health guidance and shutdowns of gathering places during COVID, to include gyms and skate parks.’

In 2023, after the monkeypox outbreak had taken hold in the U.S., Daskalakis went on national television to let the country know that his team was ‘making sure [they] got the word out in a way that supports people’s joy, as opposed to calling them risky.’

‘You know, one person’s idea of risk, is another person’s idea of a great festival or Friday night, for that matter. So, we have to sort of embrace that with joy and make sure that folks know how to keep themselves safe,’ the Biden monkeypox coordinator added.

Meanwhile, during the outbreak, Daskalkis posted a tweet from gay sex app Grindr that stated ‘Dr. Daskalakis could jab me any day,’ with a sticker of a flattered cat.

In other social media posts from around the same time, Daskalkis can be seen using male models wearing leather bondage straps to make an entrance at an HIV prevention summit. 

While in his role at the White House leading the monkeypox response, Daskalkis also reportedly ran an STD screening operation from an after-hours sex club in New York City. When asked about the operation in an interview, Daskalakis described it as ‘exciting’ and added there was ‘not much sleep time.’ Later in the interview, he added: ‘I’d already kind of been the bathhouse HIV testing doctor.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Daskalakis about the juxtaposition between his criticism of Kennedy’s policies not reflecting ‘scientific reality,’ and his role in the Biden administration’s approach to monkeypox, but did not receive an immediate response.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso is ready to go nuclear on Senate Democrats and their blockade of President Donald Trump’s nominees.

Before leaving Washington, D.C., to their respective home states, Senate Republicans were on the verge of a deal with their colleagues across the aisle to hammer out a deal to ram through dozens of Trump’s picks for non-controversial positions.

But those talks fell apart when Trump nuked any further negotiations over funding demands from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Currently, there are 145 pending nominations on the Senate’s executive calendar, with that number expected to balloon when the upper chamber reopens for business.

Lawmakers are set to return on Tuesday, and Barrasso, R-Wyo., wants to immediately tackle the nomination quandary. He’s engaged in a public pressure campaign, writing an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal directly calling out Schumer.

Meanwhile, he’s facilitated talks among Senate Republicans on the best path forward, and told Fox News Digital in an interview that, at this point, he’s willing to do anything necessary to see the president’s picks confirmed.

‘We need to either get a lot of cooperation from the Democrats, or we’re going to have to roll over them with changes of the rules that we’re going to be able to do in a unilateral way, as well as President Trump making recess appointments,’ he said.

Senate Democrats, under Schumer’s direction, are unlikely to play ball, however.

Schumer, in response to Barrasso’s public jab against him and Senate Democrats, contended in a statement that ‘historically bad nominees deserve a historic level of scrutiny by Senate Democrats.’

‘Anybody nominated by President Trump is, in Schumer’s words, ‘historically bad.’ Why? Because they were nominated by President Trump,’ Barrasso shot back. ‘That is his sole criteria for which these people are being gone after and filibustered, each and every one of them, even those that are coming out of committee, many, many of whom are with bipartisan support.’

Unilaterally changing the rules, or the nuclear option, would allow Republicans to make tweaks to the confirmation process without help from Democrats, but it could also kneecap further negotiations on key items that would require their support to advance beyond the Senate filibuster.

Barrasso was not worried about taking that route, however, and noted that the nominees that he and other Republicans were specifically considering would be ‘sub-Cabinet level positions’ and ambassadors.

Up for discussion are changes to the debate time, what kind of nominee could qualify for a speedier process and whether to give the president runway to make recess appointments, which would require the Senate to go into recess and allow Trump to make appointments on a temporary basis.

‘When you take a look at this right now, it takes a 30-minute roll-call vote to get on cloture, and then two hours of debate time, and then another 30-minute roll-call vote,’ Barrasso said. ‘Well, that’s three hours, and it’s time when you can’t do legislation, you can’t do any of the other things.’

But there is a menu of key items that Congress will have to deal with when they return, particularly the deadline to fund the government by Sept. 30.

Barrasso acknowledged that reality, and noted that it was because of the hefty schedule that he wanted a rules change to be put front and center.

‘There’s not going to be any time to — or there’s going to be limited time, I should say, to actually get people through the nominations process, which is just going to drag on further, and you’ll have more people having hearings and coming out of committees,’ he said.  

‘This backlog is going to worsen this traffic jam at the Schumer toll booth. So, we are going to do something, because this cannot stand.’

America First Legal (AFL) sued the Food and Drug Administration on Friday to obtain Biden-era records related to the government’s internal guidance for the recommended use of puberty blockers for kids.  

The Trump-aligned legal group previously uncovered communications from the former administration through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which reportedly showed the FDA knew that these drugs increased mental health risk but still recommended approving them for kids.

Following those uncovered communications, AFL followed up with a separate FOIA requesting documents specifically pertaining to the FDA’s internal guidance for the off-label use of these drugs. Despite acknowledging the federal information request, the FDA has not cooperated, and the deadline to produce documents is up.

‘The Biden administration pushed gender-denying treatments on American kids. Now, it’s time to expose what officials really knew,’ AFL counsel Will Scolinos, said. 

Similar to AFL’s current FOIA request, the group was required to engage in litigation to compel the release of the first set of documents. 

But, eventually, documents were released that seemed to show the Biden-era Division of General Endocrinology at the FDA recommended the agency approve puberty blockers for children despite the knowledge that there were negative impacts associated with them, such as increased depression, suicidality and seizure risks.

‘There is definitely a need for these drugs to be approved for gender transition,’ an FDA official from the agency’s endocrinology division stated in an email uncovered by AFL. In the same communications, the FDA official also explicitly states that studies found ‘increased risk of depression and suicidality, as well as increased seizure risk.’

Such findings have been confirmed by other studies as well.

Researchers at the University of Texas sampled 107,583 patients 18 and older who had gender dysphoria, including some who underwent gender surgery, and concluded that ‘gender-sensitive mental health support … to address post-surgical psychological risks’ is a ‘necessity.’

Males who received surgery had depression rates of 25% compared to males without surgery, who had rates slightly below 12%. Anxiety rates among that group were 12.8% compared to 2.6%.

The same differences were seen among females as well. Those with surgery had 22.9% depression rates compared to 14.6% in the non-surgical group. Females who did get surgery also had a rate of anxiety of 10.5% compared to 7.1% for girls who had not gotten surgery.

Fox News Digital reached out to the FDA for comment but did not immediately receive a response. 

Fox News’ Melissa Rudy and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday grilled lawyers for the Justice Department and Lisa Cook over President Donald Trump’s historic attempt to fire her from the Federal Reserve.

The landmark case is almost certain to be kicked to the Supreme Court for review. Despite the high-stakes nature of the legal dispute, Friday’s hearing ended after more than two hours without clear resolution. 

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, declined to immediately grant the temporary restraining order sought by Lisa Cook’s attorneys, which would keep her in her role on the Fed’s Board of Governors for now. 

Cook’s lawyers included the request for the temporary restraining order in the lawsuit filed in federal court on Thursday, challenging Trump’s attempt to fire her from her position on the independent board due to allegations of mortgage fraud. 

Instead, Judge Cobb ordered both parties to submit any supplemental briefs to the court by Tuesday, shortly before she dismissed the lawyers for the long weekend.

Cobb noted the novelty of the case before her, which involves the first attempt by a sitting president to oust a Federal Reserve governor ‘for cause.’ 

The fraud allegations were first leveled by Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the federal agency that regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He accused Cook of claiming two primary residences in two separate states in 2021, with the goal of obtaining more favorable loan conditions. 

Trump followed up by posting a letter on Truth Social earlier this week that he had determined ‘sufficient cause’ to fire Cook, a dismissal he said was ‘effective immediately,’ prompting her attorneys to file the emergency lawsuit.

The crux of Friday’s arguments centered on the definition of what ‘for cause’ provisions must entail for removal from the board under the Federal Reserve Act, or FRA, a law designed to shield members from the political whims of the commander in chief or members of Congress. 

The arguments also centered on Cook’s claims in her lawsuit that Trump’s attempt to fire her amounts to an illegal effort to remove her from the Fed well before her tenure is slated to end in January 2038 to install his own nominee. 

Lawyers for Cook argued that her firing was merely a ‘pretext’ for Trump to secure a majority on the Fed board, a contention that Cobb admitted made her ‘uncomfortable.’

They also attempted to poke holes in the mortgage fraud allegations, which they said were made on social media and ‘backfilled.’

The case ‘obviously raises important questions’ about the Federal Reserve Board, Cobb said shortly before adjourning court.

She also noted that she had not yet made a determination about the alleged ‘irreparable harm,’ prompting her to set the Tuesday filing deadline.

Cook’s attorneys argued Friday that Trump’s attempt to fire her violates her due process rights under the Fifth Amendment, as well as her statutory right to notice and a hearing under the Federal Reserve Act. 

Her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, noted on several occasions that there was no ‘investigation or charge’ from the administration prior to Trump’s abrupt announcement that he would fire Cook.  

Lowell also vehemently disputed the Justice Department’s allegations that Cook had an ‘opportunity’ to respond to the mortgage fraud accusations leveled by Bill Pulte, noting that they were made just 30 minutes before Trump called for Cook to be removed.  

He told Cobb that it was the latest attempt by the Trump administration to ‘litigate by tweet.’

Lawyers for the Trump administration, for their part, argued that the president has broad latitude to determine the ‘for cause’ provision.

Justice Department attorney Yakoov Roth told Cobb that the determination of when to invoke the provision should be left to the president, regardless of whether it is viewed by others as ‘pretextual.’

‘That sounds to me like the epitome of a discretionary determination, and that is when the president’s power is at [its] apex,’ Roth said.

DOJ lawyers also noted that Cook, to date, has not disputed any of the allegations in question and argued there is ‘nothing she has said’ about the allegations that would cause her to not be fired.

‘What if the stated cause is demonstrably false?’  Cobb asked, going on to cite hypothetical concerns that a president could, theoretically, use allegations to stack federal boards with majorities.

As for the issue of ‘irreparable harm,’ Justice Department attorneys argued that it would be more harmful for Cook to remain in office, arguing that the ‘harm of having someone in office who is wrongfully there … outweighs the harm of someone being wrongfully removed from office.’

Cook’s attorneys said Friday that in reviewing the lawsuit, the court need not itself establish a definition of what ’cause’ means under the Federal Reserve Act.

Instead, Lowell suggested, the court should instead work backwards to determine whether the accusations leveled by Pulte were in fact ‘backfilled’ by Trump to form the basis of her removal.  

‘It’s very difficult to come up with an 11-page definition of what it is,’ Lowell said Friday of the ’cause’ definition, adding that it is far easier to come up with a one-page definition of ‘what it’s not.’ 

‘Whatever it is, it’s not this,’ Lowell said.