Powell called these 13 lawmakers as DOJ opened criminal probe

In the week after the Department of Justice (DOJ) opened a criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, the central bank head called 13 lawmakers.

The calls, listed on Powell’s public calendar for January, were all 10 to 15 minutes in length. The Fed chair spoke with lawmakers from both chambers of Congress and from both sides of the aisle.

On Monday, Jan. 12, the day after Powell said the DOJ was investigating the Fed, he spoke with GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Bill Cassidy (La.) and John Kennedy (La.) and Democratic Sen. Mark Warner (Va.).

Kennedy and Warner are members of the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). After speaking with Powell, Murkowski slammed the DOJ’s probe of the central bank and said Congress should investigate the department.

The investigation, which is being conducted by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, officially concerns cost overruns for the Fed’s estimated $2.5 billion renovation. The cost of the project, initially projected to be $1.9 billion, has risen on account of higher costs for materials and labor, among other issues highlighted by the Fed.

But Powell, in confirming the probe earlier this year, said it was not about the renovation, but instead a show of force by President Trump — who repeatedly slammed the central bank and its chair last year for not backing an earlier or larger cut to interest rates.

“This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation,” he said at the time.

On the morning of Jan. 13, Powell spoke with Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), a member of the House Financial Services Committee and a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Later that afternoon, he spoke with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), followed by a call the next day with Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), a member of the Banking Committee.

On Jan. 15, he spoke with five lawmakers: House Financial Services Committee members Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Maxine Waters (Calif.) — the latter of whom is the top Democrat on the panel — along with Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Scott and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

While Scott has criticized Powell as “inept,” he told CNBC on Wednesday that the Fed chair did not commit a criminal act while discussing the renovation in front of the Banking Committee last June — the center of the DOJ’s probe.

“I was asking the questions that [are] the basis of the inquiry,” the South Carolina Republican said. “So I believe that he was wrong, but not creating any criminal activity.”

Also in January, Powell met twice with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for breakfast, once at the Treasury Department and another time at the Fed’s Marriner S. Eccles building. The day of his second meeting with Bessent, Powell also spoke with Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the former House majority leader.

With the investigation into Powell ongoing, Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to succeed him as Fed chair last month. Warsh, a former member of the central bank’s board of governors, is subject to confirmation by the Senate Banking Committee and the full upper chamber before he can take his post when Powell’s term expires in May.

But Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the banking panel, has lambasted the DOJ’s probe into Powell as a threat to the central bank’s independence and is opposing any of the president’s Fed nominees until it is resolved.

Tillis met with Warsh on Tuesday and praised him, writing on the social platform X that he “possesses impeccable credentials and a clear vision for maintaining the Fed’s independence while achieving its dual mandate.”

But the North Carolina Republican added that the “ongoing investigation prevents me from voting for Kevin at this time.”

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