Prosecutors Visit Fed as Trump Threatens to Fire Powell
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- Federal prosecutors from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office made an unannounced Tuesday visit to a Federal Reserve headquarters construction site, but a building contractor turned them away and referred them to Fed attorneys; an attorney for the Fed's board of governors told them a federal judge had already deemed their interest "pretextual."
- A top deputy from Pirro's office conceded during a closed-door hearing last month that they hadn't found any evidence of a crime in their investigation of the Fed's $2.5 billion headquarters renovation, which is $600 million over its 2022 estimate of $1.9 billion.
- Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has vowed to vote against Kevin Warsh, Trump's nominee to replace Powell, until the investigation is dropped — enough to block committee approval in the closely divided Banking Committee — calling the probe "bogus, ill-timed, ill-informed" and saying "there really is no path" to confirmation.
- Trump confirmed in a Fox Business interview that he wants to keep the probe going, and threatened to fire Powell if he stays on the Fed's seven-member governing board after his chair term expires May 15; Powell has said he won't leave until the investigation is resolved, and his board term runs through January 2028.
- The Banking Committee scheduled a hearing on Warsh's nomination for April 21, and Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said Tuesday he believes the investigation will be "wrapped up in the next few weeks," though Tillis dismissed that timeline.
- The Supreme Court is separately weighing Trump's effort to remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud, with a decision expected any time — a ruling that could determine whether Trump has the authority to fire Powell for remaining on the board.
Why it matters: The Trump administration is pressing its Fed fight on two fronts simultaneously — a criminal probe that its own prosecutors admit has produced no evidence of a crime, and a threatened firing that Sen. Josh Hawley acknowledged requires "for cause" and would be a "pretty tall order." With Tillis blocking Warsh in committee, Powell refusing to leave until the probe ends, and the Supreme Court's Lisa Cook ruling imminent, Trump faces a stalemate that could end up testing the constitutional limits of presidential control over the nation's central bank.
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