U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C., again suggested Sunday she could reopen a criminal investigation of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell over renovations to the Fed’s building in Washington, after Powell cited the possibility of further legal action in his decision to remain on the Fed’s board after he’s done as chair.
Powell announced he would remain on the Fed's Board of Governors last week.
Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images
Speaking to CNN, Pirro said her office would “continue to litigate the issue,” asking the Fed’s inspector general Michael Horowitz to conclude his separate, ongoing investigation and promising to appeal a March court ruling that effectively put the criminal probe on hold.
Pirro said she just wants to see the results of the inspector general’s report, and would “go home” if there was no evidence of criminal activity.
The federal prosecutor previously said she would “not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the fact warrant doing so.”
Powell’s term as chair of the Fed’s Board of Governors expires later this month, but he announced he would remain on the Board due to “series of legal attacks” against the independent central bank.
When asked if she would commit to ending the investigation if the inspector general finds no evidence of wrongdoing, Pirro said “it depends on what he finds.” Pirro was previously a district attorney in Westchester County, New York. “When I was a DA, child protective services would come in and say ‘we found nothing,’” the prosecutor told CNN. “It’s often that I could come in and say ‘you found nothing, but I found a crime.’ So I want to see those statements, I want to see what’s there. If there’s something there, great. If there isn’t, I’ll go home.” Pirro blamed the end of the criminal investigation on Judge James Boasberg, an Obama-appointed federal judge, for blocking subpoenas for documents in a March ruling. Pirro called the effort “perfectly legitimate,” although Boasberg previously ruled the subpoena's “dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will.”
Powell said his decision to remain at the Fed stemmed from “a series of legal attacks on the Fed which threaten our ability to conduct monetary policy without considering political factors,” although they had nothing to do with “verbal criticism by elected officials.” Speaking to reporters after a Federal Reserve vote last week, Powell explained "I'm literally staying because of the actions that have been taken. I had long planned to be retiring. And, you know, the things that have happened really in the last three months have I think left me no choice but to stay until I see them through at least that long."
Powell became a major target for President Donald Trump’s ire in 2025 for not cutting interest rates fast enough, in the president’s opinion. The Fed eventually did vote multiple times to lower interest rates over the course of the last year, but Trump has remained fixated on Powell, whose term as chair ends later this month. Amid the feud, members of the Trump administration began to scrutinize renovations to the Federal Reserve’s buildings in Washington, D.C., that allegedly went millions of dollars over budget. A previous audit of the renovations in 2021 found no evidence of wrongdoing, but the Justice Department launched a formal investigation into Powell in January. Last week, Powell announced he would remain on the Fed’s Board of Governors after his term as chair expired—an incredibly rare move that hasn’t happened since the 1940s, prompting criticism from the president and administration officials.
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