Overview
- Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into whether Jerome Powell gave false statements to Congress about the Federal Reserve headquarters renovation.
- The Justice Department sent a grand jury subpoena to the Fed on Jan. 9 seeking records related to Powell’s prior testimony and project spending.
- Powell announced the subpoena in a video statement and framed the matter as a test of central bank independence from political pressure.
- According to reporting attributed to the New York Times, the U.S. attorney in Washington approved the probe in November and prosecutors plan a document-based review.
- The renovation is a roughly $2.5 billion project now estimated about $700 million over budget, and President Trump has criticized Powell’s rate decisions even as he told NBC he knew nothing about the investigation; no charges have been announced.