U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C. Jeanine Pirro said her investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will continue, even as it threatens to derail the nomination of his successor.
After bitter acrimony with Powell over interest rates, President Donald Trump is eager to see his Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh take over the role. But the investigation from Trump’s own DOJ leaves the transition at an impasse, with dimming hopes of the Senate confirming Warsh by May 15, when Powell’s term expires.
If Warsh is not confirmed by May 15, Powell would remain as interim chair until a successor is confirmed. Powell has drawn Trump’s ire over the Fed’s refusal to lower interest rates as dramatically as the president envisions.
Pirro said Wednesday she was continuing the investigation of Powell over cost overruns of the Federal Reserve headquarters building in Washington, DC. This despite a deadlock in the Senate, where Democrats and some key Republicans refuse to confirm Warsh until the investigation is complete.
“The cost over-runs on that building are well over a billion dollars,” Pirro said at a news conference. “This investigation continues. I am in the legal lane, there are others who are in the political lane. I don’t intersect those two lanes, I am going forward.”
The investigation appears to leave no path forward for Warsh, who faced tough grilling from Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee during a confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Asked if she was having conversations with the Trump administration on the investigation into Powell, Pirro said it wasn’t necessary to do so.
“I don’t need to have a (conversation) to know as a prosecutor what I need to do, and I’m doing it,” said Pirro, who was also appointed by Trump.
Pirro to Appeal Subpoena Order
Powell has denied the allegations and said the investigation was a pressure tactic to force lower interest rates.
The Federal Reserve headquarters renovation cost jumped from $1.9 billion in 2023 to $2.5 billion in 2025. It blamed unexpected problems with the building, soil contamination and increasing costs of materials.
Crucially, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has said that he will not vote for any Fed nominee until the DOJ probe into Powell ends, calling it an unacceptable assault on Fed independence.
With all Democrats in the Senate Banking Committee having also called for a slowdown of the process because of the investigation, Warsh’s nomination has nowhere to go without support from Tillis.
Pirrohas pressed her investigation despite being stymied in the U.S. District Court for DC, where Chief Judge James Boasberg this month maintained a decision to quash two subpoenas the Justice Department issued the Federal Reserve. He said they were improper.
Pirro said she would appeal Boasberg’s decision. In the meantime, the Justice Department paid a visit to the site of the renovations.
“The idea that a judge can stand at the door of a grand jury and tell a prosecutor ‘you’re not allowed to go in’ when the United States Supreme Court has said you can go into a grand jury based on rumors and suspicion, is an order that we think must be appealed,” Pirro said in the press conference. “And we are continuing in this investigation.”
Trump wants to see rates lower, while the Fed’s Open Markets Committee has held firm on keeping them steady. That body has worried the Iran conflict and other issues mean the economy is weaker than it appears. Powell said last month it’s possible the Fed won’t cut rates at all this year.
Warsh has been hawkish in arguing for rate cuts. But at his nomination hearing this week, said he would maintain the Fed’s independence from the White House.
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