A US federal judge on Friday blocked subpoenas issued by the Justice Department against US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, citing “improper purpose”. The judge wrote that the evidence suggested the government subpoenaed “the council to force its chairman to vote for lower interest rates or resign.”
“Abundant evidence indicates that the government submitted these subpoenas to the board to force its chairman to vote for lower interest rates or resign,” Judge James E. Boasberg wrote in a March 11 filing, AFP reported.
“Therefore, the court finds that the subpoenas were issued for an improper purpose and will quash them,” E. Boasberg wrote.
What is against Jerome Powell?
In January of this year, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) served a grand jury subpoena on the Federal Reserve System—initiating criminal investigation against Chairman Jerome Powell for his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June 2025.
Trump has accused Powell of “fraudulent” costs associated with renovating Federal Reserve office buildings, claiming the cost jumped to $2.5 billion from the $1.9 billion originally planned for 2019. The U.S. Department of Justice said the investigation is into potential “misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
Meanwhile, Powell claimed the criminal investigation came from the Federal Reserve “the decision to set interest rates based on what it believes to be in the best interest of the public”, rather than ‘policy alignment with the president’s preferences’.
The US president has long been a critic of Powell – whom he named Fed chairman in 2017 during his first term as president – but has often clashed with him over his reluctance to cut interest rates. Trump has called bankers “mr. too late” and “numb” and repeatedly accused the Fed chairman of keeping interest rates “too high” for too long.
Who decides the interest rates?
Powell himself does not decide on interest rates. He is one of 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a body that meets eight times a year to discuss and vote on whether to raise, lower or leave interest rates unchanged.
in March Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve System, succeeding Jerome Powell.
‘Inflammatory’
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro called a federal judge’s decision to quash the subpoena “outrageous” and said Friday the Trump administration would appeal the order.
Pirro is the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who is leading the investigation.
