Why Jerome Powell Got Slapped With a Federal Subpoena

Matt Vespa | January 12, 2026 7:00 AM

With total certainty, this is going to rile up the political class and the liberal media. It will be viewed as overreach, and maybe it is, but we sort of got a preview of this when President Trump accused Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell of not being forthcoming about the cost of renovations to the central bank’s office. The president alleged gross mismanagement of the project last year. Now, the Justice Department has slapped Powell with a federal subpoena. He addressed this story last night (via NBC News):

The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome H. Powell, has released a statement confirming that the Justice Department under President Trump has launched an investigation into his testimony in front of the Senate Banking Committee, stating, “This new threat of criminal charges is… pic.twitter.com/XMESm8gd3X
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) January 12, 2026

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Sunday that the Justice Department subpoenaed the central bank Friday with the threat of a criminal indictment, the latest move in a yearlong pressure campaign from the Trump administration.
Powell said the threatened indictment related to his testimony before the Senate in June about the renovation of Federal Reserve office buildings.
"No one—certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve—is above the law," Powell said. "But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure."
Powell said the Justice Department's subpoenas were just the latest way for the administration to exert control over the Fed and its decisions about interest rates.
Since before the start of his second term, President Donald Trump has demanded lower interest rates and has routinely attacked Powell and the central bank’s other top officials. The administration has ramped up that criticism as an affordability crisis hit consumers.