Judge blocks DOJ subpoenas of Federal Reserve

WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Justice Department from subpoenaing the Federal Reserve and its chair Jerome Powell, slamming the related investigation as a clear effort to pressure Powell and his colleagues to lower interest rates.

Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee, granted the Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ motion to quash the two subpoenas, finding the government’s primary, if not sole, purpose was to “harass and pressure” Powell.

“A mountain of evidence suggests that the government served these subpoenas on the board to pressure its chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning,” Boasberg wrote. “On the other side of the scale, the government has offered no evidence that Powell committed any crime other than displeasing the president.”

Boasberg slammed the subpoena as part of President Donald Trump’s retribution campaign against his perceived enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey, Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“Being perceived as the president’s adversary has become risky in recent years,” Boasberg wrote in his 27-page opinion. “In his second term, Trump has urged the Department of Justice to prosecute such people, and the department’s prosecutors have listened.”

The Justice Department opened the criminal investigation into Powell on Jan. 11, related to his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings.

The Federal Reserve revealed the existence of the probe in a video on X, in which Powell urged Americans to consider the unprecedented investigation “in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure” against him and the Fed. He slammed the assertion that the investigation was focused on his testimony or renovation projects as pretexts.

Trump has criticized the project as excessive, although after a publicized tour with Powell on July 24, 2025, the president largely stopped commenting on the renovation’s price tag. In an interview with NBC News on Jan. 11, Trump insisted he had no prior knowledge of the DOJ investigation.

“I don’t know anything about it, but he’s certainly not very good at the Fed, and he’s not very good at building buildings,” Trump said.

U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro slammed the decision at a press conference Friday, which was announced prior to Boasberg’s decision.

“No one is above the law, but for the first time a judge’s ruling that a grand jury subpoena — on its face legal in all regards —can be ignored, because the judge thinks the subject is beyond reproach,” Pirro said.” This is a decision that is untethered to the law.”

She said Boasberg’s decision was wrongfully interfering with the grand jury’s ability to review evidence, calling him an “activist judge” and that Powell was now “bathed in immunity.”

The subpoenas, Pirro said, were necessary because Powell had refused to comply with investigators’ requests for documents related to the renovation project through December.

She pointed to a pair of Supreme Court cases, presented on a placard beside the podium, *U.S. v. R. Enters Inc.*and *U.S. v. Dionisio,*and specifically quoted the high court’s recognition of a grand jury’s ability to investigate crimes with minimal evidence, including that a grand jury “may act on tips and rumors.”

Boasberg’s decision, Pirro said, wrongfully required investigators to establish probable cause to warrant the grand jury subpoenas. She vowed to appeal Boasberg’s “outrageous” ruling to the D.C. Circuit.

Powell’s probe is the Trump administration’s latest effort to bend the Federal Reserve to its will, with an effort last August to terminate Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook based on claims of mortgage fraud, leading her to sue.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte, a Trump appointee, made a criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi and former DOJ Special Attorney Ed Martin claiming Cook had wrongfully claimed two different houses as her main residence in 2021 to obtain better loan terms.

Representative Eric Swalwell sued Pulte in Washington for making a near-identical criminal referral against him last August.

Both U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb and a D.C. Circuit panel rejected the president’s effort to immediately remove Cook, finding the administration violated her due process rights by failing to provide notice of the mortgage fraud claims and an opportunity to respond.

Cook’s case is currently pending before the Supreme Court, which heard arguments on Jan. 21.

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