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Washington — A federal judge has quashed a pair of grand jury subpoenas sent to the Federal Reserve Board as part of a criminal probe by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office, saying they were merely a pretext to pressure Chairman Jerome Powell into voting for lower interest rates or resigning.
“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. On the other side of the scale, the Government has offered no evidence whatsoever that Powell committed any crime other than displeasing the President,” Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in his ruling, which was dated March 11 and unsealed on Friday.
“The Court must thus conclude that the asserted justifications for these subpoenas are mere pretexts.”
In January, Powell revealed that the Federal Reserve had received grand jury subpoenas from the Justice Department as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into him.
The subpoenas threatened a criminal indictment related to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June 2025, according to Powell. The chairman — who has drawn President Trump’s ire for declining to rapidly slash interest rates — said the probe centered on his comments about a years-long renovation project at the Federal Reserve’s office buildings. The investigation has not resulted in any criminal charges.
Pirro said at a news conference that the Justice Department will appeal Boasberg’s decision.
The judge’s ruling
In his ruling, Boasberg heavily quoted Mr. Trump, and said the motivation behind the criminal probe appeared to be driven by his desire to pressure the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell has done it again!!! He is TOO LATE, and actually, TOO ANGRY, TOO STUPID, & TOO POLITICAL, to have the job of Fed Chair,” read one post cited by Boasberg.
“That is one of at least 100 statements that the President or his deputies have made attacking the Chair of the Federal Reserve and pressuring him to lower interest rates,” the judge wrote, noting that when the pressure failed, he resorted to calling for Powell’s ouster instead.
“Perhaps it comes as no surprise, then, that the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office has recently opened a criminal investigation into Powell,” Boasberg wrote.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina who sits on the Banking Committee, said Boasberg’s decision “confirms just how weak and frivolous the criminal investigation of Chairman Powell is and it is nothing more than a failed attack on Fed independence.”
“We all know how this is going to end and the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office should save itself further embarrassment and move on,” he wrote in a post on X.
Tillis also warned that if the Justice Department appeals the decision, it will further delay the confirmation of Kevin Warsh to succeed Powell as Fed chairman. Powell’s term is set to end in May, and Tillis has repeatedly said he would not support the confirmation of any of Mr. Trump’s nominees to the Fed until the Justice Department closed its investigation into Powell.
Pirro’s response
Pirro strongly criticized Boasberg’s decision at her news conference in Washington, calling him an “activist judge” and arguing his decision was “untethered to the law.”
Pirro said the judge’s ruling essentially “neutered the grand jury’s ability to investigate crime.”
“As a result, Jerome Powell is now bathed in immunity preventing my office from investigating the Federal Reserve. This is wrong and it is without legal authority,” Pirro said, noting that the ruling essentially means that a grand jury subpoena “can be ignored because a judge thinks the subject is beyond reproach.”
“This judge has put himself at the entrance door to the grand jury, slamming that door shut, irrespective of the legal process and thus preventing the grand jury from doing the work that it does,” Pirro said.
Boasberg has been repeatedly attacked by Mr. Trump and senior members of his administration for decisions in other cases, including one involving the president’s attempt to swiftly deport alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act. Some Republicans in Congress have said Boasberg should be impeached, but the effort is unlikely to succeed. The Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint against Boasberg that was tossed out.
Pirro claimed that prosecutors made several efforts to contact the Fed but were “ignored.” She accused Powell of publishing a “woe-is-me video” and calling “friends” in Washington, D.C., and worldwide to “gin up support for himself,” referring to the video message Powell released revealing the subpoenas.
Pirro also said Tillis’ warning about Warsh’s nomination had no impact on her approach to the case.
“Politics is not the lane I’m in right now and I have a charge and an oath to the Constitution, and my job is to present evidence,” she said.
The Powell probe
The investigation into Powell centers on a pricey years-long project to renovate the Fed’s headquarters. Congressional Republicans, Trump administration officials and Mr. Trump himself have criticized the project, which has faced cost overruns, calling it “ostentatious” and suggesting it may violate rules governing federal construction projects. In one rare direct confrontation last summer, Mr. Trump and Powell donned hardhats to tour the construction site together, and openly disagreed about the project’s cost. The Fed is not reliant on taxpayer money.
In his testimony before the Senate last June, Powell defended the project and said some public reports that described it as overly lavish were inaccurate. Some Republicans accused him of lying.
Pirro on Friday said the subpoenas were issued to investigate fraud and whether Powell made false statements.
Powell has called the investigation retaliatory and argued the Justice Department was punishing him over the central bank’s interest rate policies, endangering the Fed’s independence. Mr. Trump favors lower rates, which could speed up economic growth and lower borrowing costs, but the Fed has taken a slow-and-steady approach to rate cuts, wary of the risk of surging inflation. The president has repeatedly voiced frustration that the Fed isn’t lowering rates quickly enough for his liking and, at times, mused about firing him.
“Where is the Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, today?” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday. “He should be dropping Interest Rates, IMMEDIATELY, not waiting for the next meeting!”
Boasberg wrote in his opinion: “In sum, the President spent years essentially asking if no one will rid him of this troublesome Fed Chair. He then suggested a specific line of investigation into him, which had been proposed by a political appointee with no role in law enforcement, who hinted that it could be a way to remove Powell. The President’s appointed prosecutor promptly complied. Those facts strongly imply that this investigation was launched for an improper purpose, as were the resulting subpoenas.”
The Fed mounted a closed-door effort to block the subpoenas and challenged their legality, though the crux of their legal arguments were unclear.
The investigation involving the Fed has complicated the path for Mr. Trump to appoint a new Fed chair when Powell’s term expires in May given Tillis’ pledge.
But Tillis was not the only Republican to criticize the investigation. GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who chairs the Banking panel, told Fox Business last month that while he believed Powell “made a gross error in judgment” during his testimony and wasn’t prepared for the hearing, he didn’t think the chair committed a crime.
If the Senate confirms Warsh, it would give Mr. Trump more influence over interest rates. But his influence would not be absolute. The Fed’s interest rate targets are set by a 12-member committee that includes the chair, the other six Fed board members — only two of whom are Trump appointees — and five regional Fed bank presidents whom the president has no direct authority over. And Powell could choose to stay on the board until his term as a rank-and-file member ends in 2028, preventing Mr. Trump from picking up another board seat.
Mr. Trump has separately attempted to remove another member of the Fed Board, Lisa Cook, after a top administration official accused her of making misrepresentations on her mortgage documents. Cook has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime.
The Supreme Court is currently weighing whether to allow the president to fire Cook, and appears likely to let her keep her job while litigation over her firing moves forward.
