President Trump showed no sign of dialing back on his administration’s attacks on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, offering new insults following Powell’s announcement that he is being threatened with criminal indictments by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Speaking briefly to reporters this afternoon, Trump was asked about the threat of indictment against Powell.
“He’s billions of dollars over budget,” he said, referring to the renovations to the Federal Reserve headquarters. “So, he either is incompetent or he’s crooked. I don’t know what he is, but he certainly doesn’t do a very good job.”
NBC News, citing three people familiar with the investigation, reported the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia began preparing a case against Powell in November but did not alert the DOJ leadership, the Treasury Department or the White House prior to issuing subpoenas over the cost overruns in the renovation of Federal Reserve office buildings. In December, Trump stated that he was “thinking about bringing a suit against Powell for incompetence,” though it is unclear whether that remark was made without knowledge of what the US Attorney’s Office was planning.
On Sunday, Trump told NBC News that he was unaware that the central bank was being subpoenaed. Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for Washington, claimed in an online statement that her office “contacted the Federal Reserve on multiple occasions to discuss cost overruns and the chairman’s congressional testimony, but were ignored, necessitating the use of legal process—which is not a threat.” However, Pirro never explained why her office did not alert the president or Attorney General Pam Bondi over her decision to serve subpoenas to the central bank.
The New York Times is reporting that Pirro is claiming that Pulte had no input in this matter, adding that the Fed only received a pair of emails from her office over the year-end holiday season regarding the renovation cost overruns. However, neither email included a deadline for a response.
