Jerome Powell, the 16th Chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve, during a moderated conversation at Harvard University on Monday, March 30, 2026, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Mel Musto | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Justice Department has no intention of reopening a criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over the central bank’s multibillion-dollar over-budget renovation of its headquarters, a Justice Department spokesperson told CNBC.
“We are not reopening the criminal investigation against him,” Blanche told Bloomberg in an interview Friday.
In an interview, Blanche did not rule out the possibility of other Justice Department action related to the renovations. He told the publication that an investigation could be launched if an independent audit of the renovations found evidence of criminal activity.
His comments came days after the Federal Reserve’s inspector general found no reasonable basis to believe a federal crime had occurred that warranted a referral to the attorney general, even as he faulted the central bank for serious management and oversight failures that contributed to the project’s soaring costs.
President Donald Trump denounced the decision in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday following the news, saying Powell should “at the very least” be “forced to resign” from the central bank’s board.
“He can’t control the building, and he shouldn’t be allowed to control the high interest rate policy,” Trump said.
The Department of Justice launched an investigation into the renovation work in January. Prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas for relevant records, but a federal judge in March canceled the subpoenas, finding that the subpoenas were issued for an improper purpose and that the government had produced essentially no evidence that Mr. Powell had committed a crime. The Justice Department objected to the ruling, but later closed the investigation without filing an appeal.
Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, who replaced Powell in May, said the central bank would bring in independent auditors and increase oversight of the project. Mr. Powell will remain on the Fed’s Board of Governors for another term, running through January 31, 2028.
President Trump has repeatedly pressured Powell to step down from the board altogether after years of clashes over interest rate policy.
CNBC’s Ryan Ruggiero contributed to this report.
