Current Fed chair Warsh plans independent audit of renovation project costs
The US Department of Justice is not reopening a criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for cost overruns related to the central bank’s building renovation project, a department spokesperson said Friday.
The decision comes two days after the Fed’s inspector general on Wednesday said it found “no grounds for a criminal referral or evidence of administrative misconduct” tied to the project cost overruns. The same inspector general’s report separately concluded that there was “lax oversight” of the project, language that drew a fresh call for Powell’s resignation from President Donald Trump.
Attorney General Todd Blanche, in comments to Bloomberg News — which first reported Friday’s development — said he has not ruled out continuing to look into the project’s oversight and could take action if new evidence of criminal wrongdoing came to light. Blanche told Bloomberg that if a new review found any evidence of criminal wrongdoing, the Justice Department could investigate.
The inspector general’s “lax oversight” finding stopped short of accusing Powell or other Fed officials of criminal conduct. Trump, who across his two presidencies has been a vociferous critic of Powell, used the finding to renew his call for Powell to step down from the Fed’s board of governors.
Powell has remained at the Fed as a governor since stepping down as chair in May. At his final press conference as Fed chief in April, Powell said he would not leave the central bank’s board “until this investigation is well and truly over, with transparency and finality.”
Powell’s successor as Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, said on Thursday he would hire an independent auditor to “verify accuracy and compliance” for all of the project’s costs. The audit, announced a day before the Justice Department’s Friday statement, establishes a separate review track run by the central bank itself.
A Fed spokesperson had no immediate comment on Blanche’s statements.