Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell speaks alongside Michelle Bowman (L), Board Vice Chair for Supervision, Lisa Cook (2nd R), Board Governor, and Adriana Kugler (R), Board Governor, as he chairs a Federal Reserve Board open assembly discussing proposed revisions to the board’s supplementary leverage ratio requirements on the Federal Reserve Board constructing in Washington, DC, on June 25, 2025.
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images
Former Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler’s abrupt resignation from the board on Aug. 1 – and her unexplained absence at a key assembly two days earlier – left the monetary group shocked and confused.
Nominated by Democratic former President Joe Biden to fill a shock emptiness on the Fed board and confirmed in 2023, Kugler’s time period was not set to run out till January of 2026.
In her Aug. 1 resignation letter, addressed to Trump, Kugler supplied no clarification for why she was leaving her job simply months earlier than her time period ended.
“I am writing to notify you that I am resigning from my position as a governor of the Federal Reserve Board effective August 8, 2025,” she wrote.
“It has been an honor of a lifetime to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.”
The Federal Reserve said in a press launch additionally on Aug. 1 that Kugler “will return to Georgetown University as a professor this fall.”
But Kugler’s school web page on Georgetown’s website doesn’t present her educating any programs this fall.
On the opposite, the college nonetheless lists Kugler as a “governor of the Federal Reserve Board” who’s “on leave of absence from Georgetown.”
A spokesperson for Georgetown didn’t reply to emailed questions from CNBC about Kugler’s standing with the college.
Trump instructed that Kugler had resigned as a result of she “disagreed with someone from her party.”
“She disagreed with ‘Too Late’ on the interest rate, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House Aug. 1, utilizing his favourite nickname for Powell.
The mystery surrounding Kugler’s resignation, and questions on whether or not she may need been pressured to step down, have gained a brand new urgency within the weeks since she resigned.
This week, Kugler declined CNBC’s request for a proof of why she resigned so abruptly.
She additionally declined to say whether or not anybody had pressured her to resign from the Fed.
The marketing campaign in opposition to Cook
On Aug. 20, Federal Housing Finance Agency director William Pulte revealed that he had launched a marketing campaign to power Kugler’s former colleague on the board, Fed governor Lisa Cook, to resign.
Specifically, Pulte accused Cook of having dedicated “mortgage fraud” by itemizing two properties as her “primary residence” on mortgage paperwork. He additionally instructed she might have obtained decrease rates of interest if each properties have been thought-about “primary” residences.
On Aug. 15, Pulte had filed a prison referral in opposition to Cook, alleging to the Justice Department that she had dedicated mortgage fraud.
Five days later, President Donald Trump mentioned he was firing Cook over the accusations, writing in a letter to her posted on social media that they gave him enough trigger “to remove you from your position.”
Cook responded to Trump’s letter hours later, saying, “no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to” take away her from the board.
“I will not resign,” Cook mentioned in a press release. “I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.”
Cook sued the Trump administration on Aug. 28, arguing in court docket that the president’s supposed “cause” was a smokescreen for the actual cause he tried to take away her: A coverage dispute over rates of interest. The case is enjoying out in federal court docket.
Pulte has additionally accused New York Attorney General Letitia James and Democratic California Sen. Adam Schiff – two of Trump’s longtime authorized antagonists – of mortgage irregularities.
James, Schiff and Cook have all denied wrongdoing, both straight or via their attorneys.
Kugler’s actual property records
But Cook isn’t the one high-ranking Fed official whose private actual property records increase questions on which of her properties she lives in.
A CNBC evaluation of Kugler’s private monetary disclosures and her Maryland state tax records revealed two seemingly incompatible descriptions of Kugler’s major residence.
Kugler instructed CNBC Thursday that the obvious inconsistency in her actual property records was an error made by county tax officers.
Kugler’s authorities ethics monetary disclosure varieties for 2021, 2022 and 2023 checklist a mortgage on a “personal residence” valued within the vary of $1 to $5 million.
But present state tax records for that property, which is in Bethesda, Md., include a piece that records whether or not or not a home is the proprietor’s “principal residence.”
On Kugler’s records, that part reads, “Principal Residence: NO.”
During those self same years, public records present that Kugler and her husband owned one other Bethesda single household dwelling, which then rented out after which bought in 2023 for $1.45 million.
These records haven’t been beforehand reported.
There is not any indication that Kugler has completed something improper, nor that she realized any undue monetary achieve from her residences or her tax standing.
Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler speaks throughout the annual financial summit on the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research in Palo Alto, California, U.S., March 1, 2024.
Ann Saphir | Reuters
Kugler’s state of affairs additionally differs considerably from Cook’s, in that the records at challenge regarding Kugler’s property don’t embody mortgage mortgage purposes, solely tax records and federal disclosure reviews.
And it is not unusual for somebody to reveal a private residence on an ethics kind which isn’t their “principal residence,” like a trip dwelling, for instance.
Different phrases used on official paperwork may additionally sound comparable however have very completely different authorized meanings, like principal residence, private residence and first residence.
Nonetheless, it is not clear from Kugler’s records on their face the place she really lived throughout a number of years throughout which she was serving as a Biden administration official.
Kugler additionally owns a 3rd property in close by Rockville, Md., for which she reported rental earnings in 2023 of between $15,000 and $50,000.
Dr. Adriana Kugler, nominee to be a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, testifies throughout a Senate Banking nominations listening to on June 21, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
In a press release to CNBC offered by an individual licensed to talk on her behalf, Kugler mentioned, “My primary residence has always been listed in my financial disclosure and this residence has never been rented.”
“We filed a change of address in July of 2021 with Montgomery County after we moved to this residence, but it appears that Montgomery County failed to update it in its records. We are advised that Montgomery County is in the process correcting their records to reflect the 2021 change of address request.”
A spokesperson for Montgomery County mentioned Friday that “the County does not have the ability/authority to change a property owner’s status—that is handled by the Maryland Dept. of Assessments & Taxation.”
Inconsistent actual property records have change into a sort of ammunition that the Trump administration has used to focus on its political enemies, usually citing the records to publicly accuse individuals of having dedicated “fraud.”
Trump’s weapon of alternative
For the president, the stakes surrounding Kugler and Cook’s seats on the Fed board couldn’t be larger.
Kugler’s resignation offered Trump with the chance at hand decide a successor to fill her seat via the top of Kugler’s time period.
Trump selected White House advisor Stephen Miran, whose Senate affirmation listening to was Thursday in Washington.
Seating Miran on the Fed board would mark a victory for Trump in his months-long battle with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for management over the enormously highly effective establishment and its rate of interest adjusting authority.
Few priorities are more important to the president than freely wielding affect over the central financial institution.
Trump has lengthy accused the Fed of making rate of interest choices motivated by political bias in opposition to him.
He and his administration have additionally accused Powell of intentionally holding again U.S. financial development.
Since he took workplace in January, Trump has utilized intense stress on Powell and the opposite Fed governors to chop borrowing prices — to no avail.
That stress was on show as just lately as Friday morning, when Trump wrote on social media that “Jerome Too Late’ Powell should have lowered rates long ago. As usual, he’s ‘Too Late!'”
His White House press secretary later also said Trump’s “agenda continues to be held back by Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell’s foolish refusal to admit that President Trump is right about everything.”
With Miran seated, Trump would have nominated three of the seven governors on the board, placing him one step nearer to what he describes as his goal of dominating the central financial institution.
The day after he tried to fireside Cook, Trump mused that when she was gone and her successor was confirmed, 4 of the seven governors would be his nominees.
U.S. President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum attend a cupboard assembly on the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
“We’ll have a majority very shortly,” Trump mentioned throughout a Cabinet assembly on the White House on Aug. 26. “So that’ll be great.”
“Once we have a majority, housing is going to swing, and it’s going to be great,” the president mentioned.
“People are paying too high an interest rate. That’s the only problem with us. We have to get the rates down a little bit,” he added.