Sept. 4 will see a pair of dueling events regarding the Federal Reserve, with another attempt by the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to force the removal of Fed Gov. Lisa Cook scheduled at the same time as with a Senate confirmation hearing to fill a temporary vacancy on the central bank’s Board of Governors.
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will hold a confirmation hearing on Sept. 4 at 10:00 a.m. to consider five Trump administration appointees. The most prominent of the five nominees is Stephen Miran, a White House economist selected to fill the temporary vacancy left by last month’s resignation of Adriana Kugler, whose term expires at the end of January.
The hearing will take place despite requests by the Democrats on the committee to halt proceedings in the wake of the Trump administration’s efforts to oust Cook amid accusations that she committee mortgage fraud. Although FHFA Director Bill Pulte made two criminal referrals to the Department of Justice regarding Cook, she has not been indicted and has sued the Trump administration to block its efforts to remove her.
Pulte announced a press conference for Sept. 4 at 10:00 a.m. on the steps of the Elijah Barrett Prettyman US Courthouse in Washington, DC, which he titled “In the Matter of Lisa D. Cook.” Pulte declared on his personal X account, “Once you see what we present on Thursday, there’s going to be a lot of people apologizing and retracting their false and defamatory statements. Watch.”
It is uncertain why Pulte opted to hold his event directly opposite the Miran confirmation hearing, which was scheduled a few weeks ago.
UPDATE: At 1:01 p.m. EDT this afternoon, Pulte took to his personal X account to announce he was not going through with the press event, declaring, “Out of respect for the process, I will be delaying this press conference.” No explanation was given on whether “the process” involved the Miran confirmation hearing or the investigation by the Department of Justice, or if another issue was at play.
