Fed Chair Powell to Witness Supreme Court Arguments on Trump's Power to Remove Lisa Cook

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell plans to attend oral arguments on Wednesday at the Supreme Court in a case challenging the power of President Donald Trump to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook, a person familiar with the situation told CNBC on Monday. Powell's planned attendance comes as the Fed chairman is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., in connection with a multi-billion-dollar renovation of the central bank's headquarters and his testimony to Congress about that project. For Powell to personally attend oral arguments in such a case is unusual. But the question of whether a president can fire a Fed governor in the manner that Trump has attempted is viewed within the central bank as having potentially existential consequences for it. Trump said in late August that he was firing Cook from the seven-member Fed Board, citing claims that she committed mortgage fraud in connection with two homes she owns. Cook denies any wrongdoing. She sued Trump in federal court in D.C., seeking to block her removal. A district court judge there on Sept. 9 barred Trump from firing her as the lawsuit continued. A federal appeals court soon after upheld that order.