President Trump said Monday the Justice Department should not drop its criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, even if it means a harder path to confirmation for his replacement pick, Kevin Warsh.
Sen. Tom Tillis, North Carolina Republican, has threatened to block Mr. Trump’s Fed nominee until the criminal probe into Mr. Powell is fully resolved. The senator, who is set to retire, pledged last month that he would oppose any nominee for the Fed until the investigation is completed.
Mr. Tillis is a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Another Republican on the panel, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has taken a similar position, setting up a potential stalemate for the nomination.
Despite the possibility that his nominee could be stalled in the Senate, Mr. Trump insisted that Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for Washington, should take the investigation to its end.
“You want to take it and just find out what happened,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Mr. Powell, whose term ends in May, is said to be under investigation in connection with the Fed’s multibillion-dollar renovation of its Washington headquarters and whether he lied to Congress about the scope of the project.
The president compared the renovation of the Fed’s headquarters to his rehabilitation of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, when he was a real estate developer. He noted that the Fed building is much smaller, but has already cost $4 billion, compared to the $200 million Mr. Trump said he spent to rehab the much smaller hotel.
“I don’t know what these people are doing. It’s either gross incompetence or it’s theft of some kind, or kickbacks,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “something went wrong and we need to find out what it was.”
Mr. Powell has denied any wrongdoing and said the real reason for the probe is his and other Fed board members’ refusal to cut interest rates as quickly and as much as Mr. Trump has demanded.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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