DOJ targets Fed chair Powell over HQ renovation testimony

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says the Justice Department has served the Fed with grand jury subpoenas and threatened criminal indictment over his June Senate testimony on a multi‑billion‑dollar renovation of the central bank’s historic headquarters, an extraordinary move he publicly cast as political retaliation for interest‑rate policy. In a rare personal statement Sunday, Powell said DOJ’s stated focus on his renovation testimony and congressional oversight is a "pretext," arguing the real issue is that the Fed has been setting rates based on economic evidence rather than President Trump’s preferences with four months left in his term as chair. The investigation, first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by the Fed, raises the stakes in Trump’s long‑running campaign against Powell and directly tests the norm of Fed independence that markets and global central banks treat as a cornerstone of U.S. economic stability. While Powell emphasized that "no one" is above the law, he warned that using criminal probes as leverage over monetary decisions would amount to directing interest‑rate policy by "political pressure or intimidation" instead of data, a line that is already provoking alarm among economists and former Fed officials online. How DOJ frames the case publicly — and whether any indictment materializes — will signal whether this is a genuine criminal inquiry into contracting and testimony or a political shot across the Fed’s bow as the White House prepares to name Powell’s successor.