SOTS 2nd Hour: Fed Gov. Lisa Cook’s Case Heads To Court – Latest Analysis, Plus: Affirm & Celsius CEOs 8/29/25

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Carl Quintanilla (0:50)

Good Friday morning, welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Contessa Brewer and David Faber here at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Sarah Eisen has the morning off. Got breaking news this hour. Fed Governor Lisa Cook's case goes to court. A hearing to temporarily block the president from removing her from office kicks off. Pretty much right now, we've got full team coverage. Our Eamon Javers of the Courthouse of Washington, Steve Leesman here for analysis. Let's begin with you, Eamon. Set the scene for us.

Eamon Javers (1:16)

Yeah Carl, what we know is that lawyers for both sides have arrived, Abby Lowell, the defense attorney for Lisa Cook, who is representing a number of high profile people who've been fired or attempted to be fired by President Trump, has arrived here at the courthouse. There you see him making his way in. Also, the attorneys for the Department of Justice have arrived here as well, defending the president's prerogatives here. And we've got these dueling filings now from both sides. We've got a filing from Fed Governor Lisa Cook in which she's suing the president and the Fed. And she says, even if Governor Cook had committed the infractions that the president alleges, which she did not, the president would lack cause to remove her. And that word cause is the central point of this fight. You see the Department of Justice filing just this morning on the same point. They say the president retains a broad discretion to remove a governor for cause. So the issue before the judge this morning is going to be, A, what is cause ultimately mean? And then B, whether or not to grant a temporary restraining order blocking the president's attempt to fire Lisa Cook while this lawsuit plays out. So what Lisa Cook wants this morning is the court to say, President Trump, you have to stop. Lisa Cook is allowed to stay at the Fed until this issue is resolved in the court. That could be weeks or months from now. What the government wants is for the court to reject that restraining order and the court to say, the firing can proceed and we'll hear this lawsuit out in due course and we'll determine where we go at the end of the lawsuit. One issue that has been a mystery all week, at least to me, guys, is whether or not Lisa Cook retains access to her office and to her devices at the Fed, given that the president has said that she should be fired. I am told now that there has been no change in Cook's status at the Fed and she does, in fact, retain access to the office and to her devices. So that clears up that mystery. It's not clear whether she's actually physically been to the office, given that it's the last week in August, Labor Day weekend. She'd been traveling in Jackson Hole, et cetera, et cetera. So what we know now is that she does retain access to the office and devices and there's been no change in her status at the Fed. Back over to you guys.

Contessa Brewer (3:35)

Amen, at this point, tell us what you expect to hear out of court today. How long you expect this hearing to go? It's just a ruling on an injunction, so are you expecting to get much color around did she or didn't she?

Eamon Javers (3:52)

No, I don't think we're gonna get into the ultimate heart of the matter. What's gonna happen is the judge is going to open the proceedings the very beginning of this lawsuit. This will be the first proceeding in this suit since it was filed. This is moving relatively quickly, but I think this question of whether this restraining order is granted is going to be central to it. Does the judge step in and stop the firing, or does the judge say the firing can continue, the Fed's gonna have to sort that out on its own, and we're gonna work our way through this case. I don't think it's going to be that long, Contessa, but you never know. This is a very high-profile case, and these are some very expensive lawyers, and we'll see what they have to say.