Things have been tense between President Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell for some time now, and it looks like that tension isn’t going away any time soon. On Monday, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro took to her official X account to claim that the current Justice Department inquiry into the Federal Reserve and its Chair, Jerome Powell, didn’t have to happen, and wouldn’t have, had only the Fed “…responded to our outreach.”
The United States Attorney’s 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.
The word “indictment” has come out of Mr.…
— US Attorney Pirro (@USAttyPirro) January 13, 2026
The post continues:
The word “indictment” has come out of Mr. Powell’s mouth, no one else’s. None of this would have happened if they had just responded to our outreach.
This office makes decisions based on the merits, nothing more and nothing less. We agree with the chairman of the Federal Reserve that no one is above the law, and that is why we expect his full cooperation.
That’s the way these things should work, of course; the Department of Justice, while under the direction of the executive branch, by necessity maintains a certain level of autonomy.
As far as the origins of this imbroglio, a story on Tuesday at The Hill has some details:
On Sunday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a statement that the Justice Department served the Fed with grand jury subpoenas and threatened a criminal indictment related to his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, when he discussed the estimated $2.5 billion renovations to the central bank headquarters in Washington.
Subpoenas, we might note, do not necessarily lead to indictments. It’s part of an investigatory process, and nothing more.
Those renovations have been an ongoing bone of contention between Powell and President Trump.
The president has challenged Powell over the Fed’s headquarters renovations, which began three years ago and is now $700 million over budget. During a visit to the Fed’s headquarters in July, Trump said the renovation cost does not allow him to fire Powell and said he would “love to see it completed.”
A reporter later asked Trump what he would do if a project manager was above budget.
“Generally speaking, what would I do? I’d fire him,” the president said at the time.
This is the world the president moved in for much of his life, namely, commercial real estate. That’s likely a part of the reason he’s frustrated with the slow progress and rising costs now.
Read More: White House: Don’t Look at Us Regarding Jerome Powell Probe
Federal Prosecutors Launch Criminal Investigation Into Fed Chair Jerome Powell
As noted, there has been some antipathy between President Trump and Fed Chairman Powell for some time now, mostly over Powell’s reluctance to lower interest rates, citing his concerns about a possible re-ignition of the Biden-era inflation. Speaking to the press on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated unambiguously that the president did not ask for nor initiate any DOJ proceedings against Chairman Powell.
This is a developing story. We’ll be back with more details as events warrant.
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