President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so,” she said in an emailed statement. “I will not resign.”

President Donald Trump’s decision late Monday to dismiss Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook escalated his yearlong effort to consolidate executive power and could open a new high-stakes legal battle at the Supreme Court.

Fed governors can only be fired for cause. “The extent to which there is cause is, at best, dubious,” said Karen Petrou of Federal Financial Analytics.