According to combined media reports, US District Judge James Boasberg questioned the legality of the investigation.
“Did prosecutors issue those subpoenas for a proper purpose? The Court finds that they did not,” Boasberg wrote in his decision, which was dated Wednesday, but unsealed on Friday. “There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ 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.”
Boasberg, an Obama appointee added, “On the other side of the scale, the Government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime; indeed, its justifications are so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual.”
Powell revealed the DOJ’s investigation into him in an online video in January. Powell’s term as chairman expires in May and he has withstood multiple threats of being fired by President Trump.
Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for Washington, DC, criticized the judge’s ruling, calling it “without legal authority” and declaring that “Jerome Powell is now bathed in immunity.”
“This outrageous decision will be appealed by the Department of Justice,” she stated.
Boasberg thinks he was put on this earth to undo whatever policy Trump establishes. He obviously is putting himself in position for a Supreme Court seat for the next democratic President.
That’s a very shortsighted self-serving partisan political comment. Boasberg was a judge long before Trump was thought of as president. He was appointed to judge positions on the D,C, District Court by both Republican President G.W. Bush and democratic President Barack Obama He also lived in the same group house with his then Yale Law School classmate and later Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. His decision in this matter was based on an objective common sense view of the facts.
Trump is a lawless moron, who is trying to turn the USA into a dictatorship where Congress, the Courts and the Press, and the Federal Reserve have to bow to his outrageous demands. Wake up, cult follower! We won’t stand by while checks and balances are TRASHED by these deplorable fools who make a mockery of us daily!
Perfectly said
The fact that this administration is going to great lengths to try and reduce the interest rates and fast, tells you just how worried they are about this economy.