A formal denial of any intentional wrongdoing is on record from lawyers for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, entered in direct response to President Trump's threats to remove her from the board. The dispute centers on mortgage paperwork. Cook describes it as inadvertent, and her legal team says Trump has no lawful grounds for dismissal.
Trump's stated basis for seeking Cook's removal is the mortgage filing. Her lawyers answered by contesting its characterization. The filing was inadvertent, not deliberate; that distinction, they argue, removes the legal foundation for any removal action. Intentional wrongdoing, they say, did not occur.
Cook has said this plainly: Trump has no grounds to fire her. Her lawyers formalized that assertion in their written response to the White House's stated position, placing a direct legal denial against the president's cause.
The dismissal threat stands. The denial is on file. The mortgage paperwork remains the contested fact between a sitting Fed governor's legal team and the president's stated grounds for her removal.