Headline Roundup • January 12th, 2026
DC US Attorney's Office Reportedly Opens Criminal Investigation Into Fed Chair Powell
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is under criminal investigation by the US Attorney for the District of Columbia (USADC), according to a Sunday report from The New York Times (Lean Left bias).
The Details: The Times cited "officials briefed on the situation" as its source. The investigation reportedly centers on whether Powell was truthful in his June 2025 congressional testimony regarding $2.5B in renovations slated for the Fed's DC headquarters.
For Context: Trump and Powell clashed publicly last July regarding the renovations when Trump visited the headquarters and accused the Fed of mismanaging the project. The spectacle came amid tensions between Powell and the president regarding Powell's resistance to lowering interest rates. The USADC is headed by Jeanine Pirro, an ally of Trump's whom he appointed to the post on May 14, 2025.
Key Quotes: Powell said in a video statement, "This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President." Trump told NBC News Sunday, "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." Tim Lauer, a spokesman for Pirro, told ABC News (Lean Left), "We do not comment on ongoing investigations."
How The Media Covered It: Outlets varied on whether they mentioned Jeanine Pirro's reported role in the probe. The New York Times prominently noted that Pirro reportedly approved the investigation in November. Several other outlets from the left reported on or mentioned Pirro's alleged role. Prominent outlets on the right, like Fox Business (Lean Right), Washington Examiner (Lean Right), and The New York Post (Lean Right), did not mention Pirro's reported role, though others like Breitbart (Right) and Newsmax (Right) did. Reuters (Center), which prominently framed "the independence of the Fed" as "at stake" because of the probe, did not mention Pirro either, though The Wall Street Journal (Center) did.
Written by the AllSides staff (of humans). Learn more. Support our mission. Suggest an improvement to this summary.
Featured Coverage of this Story
The U.S. attorney's office in the District of Columbia has opened a criminal investigation into Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, over the central bank's renovation of its Washington headquarters and whether Mr. Powell lied to Congress about the scope of the project, according to officials briefed on the situation.
The inquiry, which includes an analysis of Mr. Powell's public statements and an examination of spending records, was approved in November by Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of President Trump who was appointed to run the office last year,...
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has ramped up its pressure campaign on the Federal Reserve, threatening to indict Chair Jerome Powell over comments to Congress about a building renovation project, an action Powell called a "pretext" to gain more influence over interest rates Trump wants cut dramatically.
The latest development in a long-running effort by Trump for greater control over the Fed had immediate fallout, with Republican Senator Thom Tillis, a member of the Senate Banking Committee that vets Presidential nominees for the Fed, saying the threatened indictment puts the...
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images
The U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, focusing on the renovation of the central bank's Washington headquarters and whether he was truthful in his congressional testimony about the project.
Officials told The New York Times, which was first to report the probe, that it centers on whether Powell accurately characterized the scope and cost of the renovation during congressional appearances.
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