A criminal investigation into Jerome H. Powell, Federal Reserve chair, has been opened by U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia over the central bank’s renovation of its Washington headquarters and whether Mr. Powell lied to Congress about the scope of the project. Jerome H. Powell has posted this video in response

U.S. prosecutors in the District of Columbia have opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell over his June 2025 testimony about the central bank’s headquarters renovation in Washington, with the inquiry focusing on whether he misled Congress about the project’s scope and cost. According to the Federal Reserve, it has been served grand jury subpoenas, and Powell says the move is an unprecedented political pretext tied to pressure on the Fed over interest-rate policy rather than the renovation itself. The background is a multiyear renovation of the Fed’s two main Washington office buildings, initially estimated at about $1.9 billion and later projected to cost roughly $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion after design changes and other factors, including requests from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. Powell told Congress that the Fed had kept lawmakers informed through testimony and public disclosures, while critics — including some Trump administration figures and congressional Republicans — have argued that his statements about features and overruns were inaccurate and warrant investigation. The case matters because it places an extraordinary criminal inquiry against the sitting Fed chair at the center of an already tense fight over the central bank’s independence and monetary-policy decisions.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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