Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, is demanding access to the records related to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over claims that he may have committed perjury during a Senate hearing last summer focused on cost overruns on renovations at the central bank’s headquarters.
The Wall Street Journal reports Warren, joined by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent letters to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte demanding that documents on how the investigation came together be turned over to the Senate. Warren and Durbin specifically requested information on whether there was coordination between the DOJ, the FHFA, and the White House.
“The investigation appears to be a serious misuse of power,” the senators wrote in their letter to Pulte.
Pulte claimed he was not involved in the DOJ’s actions, although several media reports cited him as being the instigator of the probe. Pulte issued criminal referrals to the DOJ that claimed several of President Trump’s political foes allegedly committed mortgage fraud. The allegation of mortgage fraud was seized upon the president in his attempt to fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook – the constitutional nature of that action is the subject of oral arguments being held today at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Powell publicized the DOJ’s actions in a dramatic video, claiming that the investigation into him was being used by the White House as a pretext to coerce the central bank into lowering rates.
Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons
