Justice Department will not reopen criminal investigation into former Fed chair Powell, attorney general says
US Attorney General Todd Blanche told Bloomberg the Justice Department is not reopening a criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, following a watchdog report that found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the Fed's $2.4bn headquarters renovation.
The US Justice Department will not reopen a criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell over cost overruns in the central bank’s headquarters renovation, Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an exclusive Bloomberg interview on Friday.
“We’re not reopening a criminal investigation into him,” Blanche said, while not ruling out continuing to look into oversight of the project if evidence of wrongdoing emerged.
His comments followed the release on Wednesday of a roughly 120-page report by the Federal Reserve’s inspector general, which found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and did not identify any “administrative misconduct” by Powell in the $2.4bn renovation of the Marriner S. Eccles and Constitution Avenue buildings.
“At no point during our evaluation did we find reasonable grounds to believe that a violation of federal criminal law had occurred,” the watchdog’s office wrote. The report did fault the Fed’s management of the project, whose cost ballooned from an estimated $1.3bn in 2020, noting the board had not established a guaranteed maximum price even four years after work began.
President Donald Trump, who has long attacked Powell over monetary policy, responded to the report by posting that Powell “should be forced to resign” from the Fed’s Board of Governors and sued if he refused, and said he had directed Blanche to study the inspector general’s findings.
The renovation became the basis of a Justice Department criminal investigation early this year over Powell’s June 2025 Senate testimony about the project’s cost, with grand jury subpoenas issued in January. Chief US District Judge James Boasberg quashed the subpoenas in March, and the department closed the inquiry on 24 April, assuring Senator Thom Tillis it would only be revived on a criminal referral from the inspector general.
Powell’s term as chair ended in May; he remains a Fed governor until January 2028, with Kevin Warsh now chairman.
Sources
- DOJ Not Reopening Criminal Probe Into Fed’s Powell, Blanche Says — Bloomberg Law
- Trump says Powell should be forced to resign from Fed board — Moneyweb (Bloomberg wire, by Jeff Mason and Enda Curran)
- Fed Mismanaged Building Renovation but Broke No Rules, Watchdog Finds — Wall Street Journal
- Watchdog Clears Powell, Says Fed Board Mishandled Costs — Newsmax
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