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Washington — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Friday that Kevin Warsh, President Trump’s nominee for chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, will have to decide whether he would like to proceed with his nomination process because of potential impacts to his business life amid the senator’s pledge to oppose the confirmation of any nominee to the central bank until the Justice Department resolves its investigation into Chairman Jerome Powell.
In an interview with “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” set to air Sunday, Tillis said Warsh “is going to have to decide whether or not he wants to go through with this, because, as I’m sure you know, once the nominee is put forward, there are certain restrictions on what he can do in his business life.”
Tillis reiterated that he has “no intention” of supporting the confirmation of any nominee to the Fed Board until the Justice Department’s investigation into Powell is resolved. That would include the confirmation of Warsh, whom Mr. Trump announced last month as his pick to succeed Powell as Fed chair.
The senator said last month that Warsh is a “qualified nominee with a deep understanding of monetary policy,” but repeated his position that he would oppose the confirmation of any Fed nominee until the inquiry into Powell ends.
“Protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve from political interference or legal intimidation is non-negotiable,” Tillis wrote in a post on X.
In his interview with “Face the Nation,” the North Carolina Republican also sharply criticized the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, for the investigation into Powell. The Fed chair revealed last month that the central bank had received grand jury subpoenas from the Justice Department, which he said threatened a criminal indictment stemming from Powell’s June 2025 testimony to the Senate Banking Committee about a multi-year project to renovate the Fed’s headquarters.
“I think we had a young U.S. attorney with a dream trying to get the president’s attention, not even consulting with the administration and big DOJ on something that maybe they thought they’d get brownie points for,” he said. “It’s not cute.”
Pirro served as the Westchester County, New York, district attorney and was a Fox News host before Mr. Trump tapped her to serve as the top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia. She said her office contacted the Fed on “multiple occasions” to discuss cost overruns related to the renovation and Powell’s testimony, but turned to the legal process when prosecutors were “ignored.” The Fed is self-funded and is not part of the congressional appropriations process, so taxpayer dollars are not being used for the renovation.
“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,” she wrote on social media last month. “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.”
Several Republicans joined Tillis in criticizing the investigation involving Powell and pushed back on the notion that he had committed a crime while testifying. Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who chairs the Banking Committee, told Fox Business earlier this month that while he thinks Powell made a “gross error in judgment” and wasn’t prepared for the hearing, “I do not believe that he committed a crime.”
Tillis, meanwhile, said prosecutors should listen to Republicans who said they don’t believe Powell acted with criminal intent.
“More importantly, the prosecutor should understand that the protocol normally would be a referral from the chair or a member of the committee to say, ‘we think a crime was committed here,'” he said. “We’ve got a crime scene where seven Republican members say no crime was committed. How hard is that to understand?”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC earlier Friday that he believes the Banking Committee will move forward with a confirmation hearing for Warsh. The decision to hold a confirmation hearing rests with Scott as the panel’s chair, Tillis said, though as a committee member, he gets to decide for himself whether to block Warsh’s nomination.
“The decision I get to make is whether or not I allow a markup, and if I do allow a markup, how I vote,” Tillis said. “And I’m saying that until the matter is solved, I’m a no.”
Mr. Trump frequently attacks Powell over the Fed’s decisions related to interest rates and has called him “crooked” and “incompetent.” The president tapped Powell for chair of the Fed Board during his first term, and his tenure in that role is set to end in May. Powell’s term as a Fed governor, however, is not up until 2028, though he could step down sooner.
While Mr. Trump announced Warsh as his pick to follow Powell as Fed chair, the nomination has not yet been sent to the Senate.
