Lawyers for Fed chief Cook say mortgage dispute may be due to "clerical error"

Lawyers for Mr. Cook, the Federal Reserve governor, have suggested that the mortgage dispute that led to Mr. Trump's request to fire her may have stemmed from an "inadvertent clerical error" to undermine the fraudulent intent alleged by Mr. Trump and Mr. Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director. The lawyers said that even if there was an error, it was not intentional deception and no one was harmed, which involved a legal "substantial" standard. "Cook may have mismarked the use of the home in the mortgage application long before he joined the board, but had neither intent nor material effect, which does not constitute'just cause 'required for removal," the lawyers wrote in their filing for a temporary injunction. The lawyers' team also pointed out that Trump and Pulte did not even explicitly accuse Cook of profiting from the mistake, or that the mistake was intentional.