Fed's Powell says he attended Supreme Court arguments over Cook due to case's importance to Fed

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on ​Wednesday that he attended last ‌week's Supreme Court arguments over President Donald ‌Trump's effort to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook because of the case's importance to the U.S. central ⁠bank.

Asked at a ‌news conference why he attended the Supreme Court arguments, ‍Powell said: "I would say that that case is perhaps the most important legal ​case in the Fed's 113 ‌year history. And I, as I thought about it, I thought it might be hard to explain why I didn't attend it."

Powell added ⁠that there was precedence ​for previous Fed ​chairs to attend such hearings, noting that Paul Volcker appeared at ‍the ⁠Supreme Court in the 1980s, and he believed that it was ⁠appropriate for him to do so as ‌well.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing ‌by Chizu Nomiyama )