admin
The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, centered on his testimony to Congress about the multiyear renovation of the Fed’s Washington headquarters and grand jury subpoenas that were served late last week. What began as a bureaucratic spat over a $2.5 billion construction project has exploded into a full-blown legal inquiry, sharply escalating an already-tense standoff between the Fed and President Trump.
Powell responded with a public video saying the subpoenas threaten a criminal indictment and calling the action “unprecedented,” insisting the Fed fully informed Congress about the project and framing the probe as politically motivated pressure on monetary policy. Americans deserve to hear the whole truth, but Powell’s broad assertions of victimhood don’t erase the need for hard answers when taxpayer money and testimony to Congress are in question.
President Trump has long criticized Powell for failing to slash interest rates and has publicly ridiculed the renovation’s soaring costs, even threatening to remove the Fed chair over what he calls rampant waste. White House adviser Kevin Hassett said he wasn’t involved with the probe but has indicated that scrutiny of such an expensive federal project is appropriate, underscoring that oversight of unelected technocrats is not only permissible but necessary.
Let’s be clear: conservatives should be the first to defend institutional independence when it protects free markets and the rule of law, but independence should never be a shield for sloppiness or potential deception. If a grand jury and prosecutors are looking into inconsistent statements or misuse of taxpayer funds, that process should proceed without partisan theater — and those who ran the project must be held to account.
Powell argues this is a pretext to force the Fed to follow the president’s interest-rate preferences, but the rest of us aren’t required to accept that claim at face value. Accountability and transparency are conservative virtues; standing up to Washington excess doesn’t mean letting the mandarins off the hook when numbers and testimony don’t add up. The Justice Department must be allowed to follow the facts wherever they lead.
This controversy already has real consequences: markets have reacted nervously, lawmakers are bristling, and the fight over the Fed’s future now risks dragging the central bank into prolonged political warfare. Republicans in Congress should push for a prompt, transparent resolution that protects monetary independence while also ensuring no one in the swamp is above the law.
Americans who work for a living don’t want their tax dollars wasted on vanity projects or hidden cost overruns, and they won’t accept sanctimony from elites who preach responsibility while avoiding it themselves. The right answer is straightforward: let the DOJ complete a fair investigation, demand full transparency from the Federal Reserve, and, if wrongdoing is found, hold those responsible accountable — because patriotism includes protecting the public purse and defending the rule of law.
