{"id":405338,"date":"2026-01-12T21:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405338\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T21:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:41:13","slug":"trump-administration-threatens-to-indict-fed-chair-jerome-powell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405338\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration threatens to indict Fed Chair Jerome Powell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference in Washington in December.Kevin Lamarque\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has threatened to indict Federal Reserve<\/a> \u200dChair Jerome Powell over Congressional testimony he gave last summer about a Fed building project, an action Powell called a \u201cpretext\u201d to gain more influence over the central bank and monetary policy.<\/p>\n

The development in the long-simmering effort by President Donald Trump<\/a> for greater control over the Fed had immediate fallout, with Republican Senator Thom Tillis, a member of the Senate Banking Committee that vets Presidential nominees for \u200dthe Fed, saying \u200bin a statement on X that the threatened indictment puts the Department of Justice\u2019s \u201cindependence and credibility\u201d in question. Tillis said he would oppose any Trump nominees to the Fed, including the president\u2019s coming choice of a new chair, \u201cuntil this legal matter is fully resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell revealed the subpoenas and threats in a Sunday night statement.<\/p>\n

Fed Chair Jerome Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges against him as simple ‘pretexts’ to undermine the Fed\u2019s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June,\u201d Powell said. \u201cI have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one\u2013certainly not the chair of the Federal \u2060Reserve\u2013is above the law.\u201d \u201cBut this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration\u2019s threats and ongoing pressure\u201d for lower interest rates and more broadly for greater say over the Fed, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress\u2019s oversight role…Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fed could find itself in a bind as it sets the stage for Powell\u2019s successor<\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times reported on Sunday that the \u200bU.S. attorney\u2019s \u200doffice in the District of Columbia has \u200dopened \u200ba criminal investigation into Powell \u2060over the central bank\u2019s renovation of its Washington headquarters and \u200cwhether Powell lied \u200dto Congress \u200dabout the scope \u200cof the \u2060project.<\/p>\n

The inquiry, which includes an analysis \u200bof Powell\u2019s public statements and an examination of spending records, was approved in \u2060November by Attorney \u2060Jeanine Pirro, the \u200cNYT reported citing officials briefed on the situation.<\/p>\n

Trump told NBC News Sunday that he had no \u200cknowledge of the Justice Department\u2019s actions. \u201cI don\u2019t know anything about \u200dit, but he\u2019s certainly not very good at the Fed, and he\u2019s not very good at building buildings,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n

Trump has demanded the Fed cut rates sharply since resuming office in January, \u200cblaming its policy for holding back the economy and musing about firing Powell despite the legal protections ostensibly covering the Fed chair from removal. He is \u2060also trying to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook in a case that is now pending before the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

The independence of central banks, at least in setting interest rates in order to control inflation, is considered \u200ba central tenet of robust economic policy, insulating monetary policymakers from short-term political considerations and allowing them to focus on longer-term efforts to keep prices relatively stable.<\/p>\n

The inquiry into Powell \u201cis a low point in Trump\u2019s presidency and a low point in the history of central banking in America,\u201d said Peter Conti-Brown, a Fed historian at the University of Pennsylvania. \u201cCongress did not design the Fed to reflect the president\u2019s daily fluctuations, and because the Fed has rebuffed President Trump\u2019s efforts to take the Fed down he is launching the full weight of American criminal law against its Chair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Financial markets reflected little change in near-term expectations for Fed \u200bpolicy even after Powell\u2019s term as chair ends in May, with rate-futures continuing to price in two rate cuts for the year.<\/p>\n

Trump suggests he can remove Fed Chair Powell, saying he\u2019s \u2018not happy\u2019 with him over interest rates<\/a><\/p>\n

The subpoenas and statement by Powell mark a stark shift in the now longstanding battle between Trump and Powell. Trump elevated Powell to the chair\u2019s job during his first term, but quickly soured on him and made his opinions clear in a series of rebukes and threats.<\/p>\n

Powell, for his part, had largely eschewed comment on the president\u2019s actions or statements, instead acknowledging that chief executives often express opinions about a variety of issues, and pledging, as he did in the Sunday statement, to \u201ccontinue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Trump administration\u2019s latest moves, coming within months of the end of Powell\u2019s term as \u2060chair in May, appear to have marked a turning point, with Powell directly accusing the administration of using the legal system to try to achieve its goal of getting the Fed to \u2060lower interest rates further and faster than the central bank\u2019s body of 19 policymakers feels is appropriate.<\/p>\n

Opinion: A scary chart shows why diminished Fed independence may outlast this administration<\/a><\/p>\n

While Powell\u2019s term as chair ends in May, he has the right to continue on the Fed board until Jan. 31, 2028, depriving the president \u200cof an additional Fed appointment \u2013 what would be Trump\u2019s fourth on the seven-member board \u2013 until near the end of his term.<\/p>\n

The White House began early last year criticizing the Fed\u2019s $2.5 billion renovation of two of its buildings in Washington, describing it as overly costly and ostentatious.<\/p>\n

Some analysts at the time did call it a pretext for the Trump administration\u2019s pressure campaign for lower interest rates, but Powell did not. The Fed chair instead posted detailed explanations of the work on the central bank\u2019s website and sent letters to members of the Trump administration providing background.<\/p>\n

In June, when Powell gave his usual twice-yearly testimony on monetary policy to Congress, he was asked repeatedly about the \u200cwork, which he explained as being necessary updates to outdated infrastructure. In July Trump made a rare presidential visit to the site, and Powell gave him a tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference in Washington in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-405338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}