Previously, Pulte had claimed to have found evidence that California Senator Adam Schiff had committed mortgage fraud. Schiff had led the first impeachment case against Trump in 2019, as a member of the House. Pulte also claimed to have found evidence of mortgage fraud by Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York, who had gotten a civil conviction against Trump for, among other things, lying on loan forms.

But it also raised questions about Trump’s power as president. While the Republican Supreme Court claimed to find wording in the Constitution that allowed the president to freely fire members of ostensibly independent agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, which overseas antitrust law, and the National Labor Relations Board, which monitors labor law violations, it also apparently found wording that prevented the president from behaving similarly towards the Fed.

The Republican Supreme Court’s argument for the Fed’s special treatment was a bit more complicated, but it would only be a slight simplification to say that it was because the Fed is important. The Court apparently accepted the argument of the vast majority of economists that it would be bad news to have a Fed under the complete control of the president. For this reason, they appeared to leave in place the pre-existing standard for appointees of independent agencies, that they could only be removed for cause.

This is where Pulte’s accusation appeared useful. Trump could now pronounce Cook, a Black woman (like Letitia James), guilty of mortgage fraud, and therefore someone who could be fired for cause. This was never the open and shut case that Trump and his sycophants claimed.

First, it was not clear that what Cook had allegedly done amounted to fraud. According to Pulte, she had listed two different homes as primary residences on mortgage applications. If true, this might violate the law, but it is a common breach that is rarely prosecuted. It turns out three Trump cabinet members, as well as Mr. Pulte’s parents, seem to have done the same thing. If Cook’s actions had violated the law, it probably ranks as something somewhat more serious than a traffic ticket, but considerably less serious than the spousal abuse that Trump laughed off as a real crime earlier this week.

There was also the second point, that the alleged offense had occurred prior to Cook’s appointment to the Fed. Can “cause” refer to an action someone had done before being appointed to office?

There were allegations of sexual assault against Trump Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth before his appointment. RFK Jr. was an admitted heroin addict in his youth. While both cabinet members are political appointees, who clearly hold their positions at the president’s discretion, would these past offenses in principle be grounds for removal for cause?

And then there is the final point. Cook was never proven to have done anything wrong. All Trump had was Pulte’s accusation of wrongdoing.

It turns out Pulte’s accusation is not worth very much. NBC News, among other news outlets, obtained loan documents showing that Cook had identified her Atlanta house as a “vacation home,” which would seem to be in full compliance with the law. The question is now whether Trump can fire a Fed governor over a seemingly false allegation from one of his political appointees. That seems to be a pretty clear-cut loss for Team Trump, but I can’t speak for the Republican Supreme Court.

Since we’re on the topic of Trump lies, let me digress for a moment to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. First, no one should in any way applaud this act. As my eighth-grade teacher told the 13-year-old idiots celebrating the shooting of George Wallace in 1972, you kill the movement, not the man. Like Wallace, Kirk was a real human being, with friends and family. His death is a tragedy.

But moving to the broader political context, Team Trump moved to weaponize the shooting before the body was even cold, blaming the left for the killing at a point where they knew nothing about the shooter. They looked to purges of the media, schools and universities, and all other institutions.

Now that the suspect, Tyler Robinson, is in custody, it appears that the motivation for the killing was more likely to have come from the right than from the left. It’s still early, and more information will surely come out, but one thing that seems clear from this shooting is that it was done by a troubled young man who had too easy access to guns. The same is true of Thomas Cook, the 20-year-old man who shot Donald Trump in Butler Pennsylvania last summer.

Trump and his supporters are quick to blame these shootings on a mysterious “they,” implying that it is somehow part of a grand plot by the left. But like the charges against Cook, the story of the plot is a lie, invented entirely by Team Trump. Lying is apparently a way of life for those born into families with billions, but the rest of the country should not have to suffer the consequences of the lies from the rich and very rich.

Dean Baker is a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the author of the 2016 book Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Please consider subscribing to his Substack site.