At least one White House official said Wednesday that Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook should go on leave until the mortgage fraud accusations that resulted in President Trump seeking to remove her from the Fed's Board of Governors are resolved.

"If it were me and I had made the mistakes of the accused, I would either deny it because it was not true, or I would go on leave until people resolve that," Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters. "The fact that she's not doing that now suggests that she's being partisan, taking a partisan stance, which is contrary to the evidence."

When asked whether Cook should be presumed innocent, considering she hasn't been found guilty, or just take leave, Hassett said, "If I were her in her circumstance, I would take leave."

Cook's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, is likely to file a lawsuit in D.C. Federal court on Wednesday fighting the President's decision.

In the interim, the Fed has deferred a decision on Cook's status in view of pending legal action. In other words, Cook still works for the Fed and has access to emails. Whether she goes into the building or not is an open question.

Cook said Monday in a statement that she "will not resign" and "will continue to carry out her duties to help the American economy." Cook said, "President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so."

Cook's lawyer said the president's attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, "lacks any factual or legal basis."

Read more: How much control does the president have over the Fed and interest rates?

Hassett told reporters that the accusations are "serious."

Since the Fed was established in 1913, a president has never actually fired a Fed member. Section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act states that each member of the board shall hold office for 14 years unless sooner removed for cause by the president. The statute does not detail what exactly constitutes "for cause." That term has been interpreted in legal rulings to mean inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance.

The Supreme Court suggested in a decision in late May that Federal Reserve board members, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell, were insulated from being fired by the president at will, even as the high court let firings of board members stand at the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board as legal challenges to those removals made their way through the legal system.

President Trump is expected to move quickly to fill Cook's position, noting that he has some "very good people" to replace her, but didn't give specific names. He added that he was talking with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the choice, saying that "it’s a very important decision."

Trump suggested he might switch Stephen Miran, his nominee to fill the final months of recently departed Fed governor Adriana Kugler's term, to instead fill Cook's significantly longer term, which runs through until 2038. Trump would then pick a different person to replace Kugler. The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday that David Malpass, former president of the World Bank, was under consideration for a nomination to the Fed board.

Trump sent Cook a letter Monday evening, firing her, noting that he does not have confidence in her integrity and questions her competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator

"At minimum, the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator," the president wrote.

Cook has consistently voted alongside Fed Chair Powell and the policy committee's majority consensus, including the past five policy meetings when the central bank voted to hold interest rates steady. Trump has repeatedly criticized the Fed for not lowering rates.

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