Blanche rules out reopening Powell’s criminal case but leaves the door open to future investigations
Attorney General Todd Blanche made this statement in an interview with Bloomberg.
Jerome Powell during a press conference/ Brendan Smialowski
The Department of Justice (DOJ) will not reopen its criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell over the renovation of the agency's headquarters. Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed this in an interview with Bloomberg.
Powell stepped down as Fed chair in May after his four-year term expired. He was replaced by Kevin Warsh, who was nominated by Donald Trump and subsequently confirmed by the Senate.
The conflict between Trump and Powell escalated in January, when federal prosecutors announced an investigation into alleged cost overruns in the Fed's renovation project. The DOJ's criminal investigation sought to determine whether Powell misled the public about the project's scope and costs. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2027 and includes modernizing the historic Marriner S. Eccles Building and another structure on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., both built in the 1930s.
The investigation was closed on April 24, when Washington U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced that she was ordering her office to drop the case. Instead, she asked the Fed's inspector general to examine the project's cost overruns. Previously, a federal judge quashed the subpoenas, and Republican Senator Thom Tillis threatened to block Kevin Warsh's confirmation until the Department of Justice dropped the case.
In his conclusion on the case, the inspector general stated that there are no "reasonable grounds to believe that criminal law has been violated" and no evidence of misconduct by the board of directors.
The attorney general assured the public that the DOJ would not reopen the investigation into Powell. "We're not reopening a criminal investigation into him," Blanche told Bloomberg in an exclusive interview.
"I expect there will be an auditing process. If they learn anything that rises to any kind of criminal misconduct, you better believe we're going to investigate that," the attorney general added.
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