The Trump administration has threatened to indict Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over Congressional testimony he gave last summer about a Fed building project, an action Powell called a “pretext” to gain more influence over the central bank and monetary policy.
The development in the long-simmering effort by President Donald Trump for greater control over the Fed had immediate fallout, with Republican Senator Thom Tillis, a member of the Senate Banking Committee that vets Presidential nominees for the Fed, saying in a statement on X that the threatened indictment puts the Department of Justice’s “independence and credibility” in question. Tillis said he would oppose any Trump nominees to the Fed, including the president’s coming choice of a new chair, “until this legal matter is fully resolved”.
Powell revealed the subpoenas and threats in a Sunday night statement.
“On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June,” Powell said. “I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one – certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve – is above the law.”
“But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure” for lower interest rates and more broadly for greater say over the Fed, he said.