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Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook will not resign after President Donald Trump claimed to have fired her. In a letter released over the weekend, Trump wrote that Cook had been “removed” from office “effective immediately.”

The decision to publicly announce her dismissal comes just five days after Trump first made the demand over Truth Social. The letter goes on to list some of the president’s constitutional and statutory powers that he says allow him to unilaterally remove her from her post.

Trump also cited the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which gives presidents the power to fire members of the Fed’s Board “for cause.”

“I have determined that faithfully enacting the law requires your immediate removal from office,” Trump wrote. “There is sufficient reason to believe you made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements.”

The reason the president alleges Cook committed mortgage fraud came from Bill Pulte, who was appointed by Trump to a different government agency that has some jurisdiction over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the letter, Pulte says Cook falsely claimed to own two primary residences to receive better mortgage terms.

One of the properties, in Ann Arbor, Mich., is where she and her husband were married, lived, and raised their family. The other was an additional property she claimed to own in Atlanta, where she and her husband moved in 2021, after she was sworn in as a Fed governor.

On Monday, Pulte doubled down on the charges in an interview with Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria.”

“This is a very serious crime. Mortgage fraud carries up to 30-year prison sentences,” Pulte said. “It’s very odd to see people try to twist back way sideways and upside down to justify mortgage fraud.”

Pulte later confirmed to Fox that he had sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department on Aug. 15, which outlined Cook’s mortgage fraud allegations and accused her of making false statements to banks and falsifying documents. Cook has not been charged with a crime.

Cook was nominated for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board in 2022 by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in June 2022. Cook served as an assistant professor of economics and finance at Michigan State University before being tapped to join the Fed. She also worked as an assistant professor of economics at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.

Cook responded to Trump’s letter over the weekend by telling Fox News Digital that the former president does not have the authority to remove her, “purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.”

Cook is represented by high-profile attorney Abbe Lowell, who previously worked for Hunter Biden and New York Attorney General Letitia James. In recent years, he has also represented former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump.

Lowell did not waste any time blasting Trump’s decision to fire Cook in a letter to her and directly threatening her with legal action.

“President Trump has taken to social media to once again ‘fire by tweet,” and once again, his reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis, or legal authority. We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action,” Lowell said.

FOX Business has reached out to the Federal Reserve for comment.

Cook’s attorney Abbe Lowell later announced that he would file a lawsuit to challenge Trump’s actions.

“President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis. We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action,” Lowell said.

Democrats are coming to Cook’s defense, telling Trump to back down.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., all quickly issued statements over the weekend denouncing Trump’s action.

Warren, a former presidential candidate and Senate Banking Committee member, called Trump’s decision to fire Cook an “authoritarian power grab.” She went on to say that Trump “is desperately looking for a scapegoat to cover for his own failure to lower costs for Americans, and firing Lisa Cook is his latest move.”

Jeffries said there was “not a shred of credible evidence that she has done anything wrong” and accused Trump of the same.

“To the extent anyone is unfit to serve in a position of responsibility because of deceitful and potentially criminal conduct, it is the current occupant of the White House. The American people are not buying your phony projection and slander of a distinguished public servant,” Jeffries said.

Trump’s attempt to fire Cook comes as he remains publicly feuding with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over interest rates. The president and many Republicans in Congress want to see interest rates slashed to lower the cost of borrowing on the trillions of dollars in national debt. The interest payments alone on the current debt total more than $650 billion.

The national debt passed $37 trillion under the Biden administration, but Trump has so far largely remained on the sidelines about the explosion in government borrowing during his four years in the White House.