Here’s U.S. Attorney for DC “Judge” Jeanine Pirro announcing that her office is dropping its investigation into the chair of the Federal Reserve:
Her attempt to save face here is accomplished by claiming the Fed Inspector General will take over her work. But, as various reporters have noted, Powell himself had already asked the IG to look into cost overruns. It’s not clear anything new is happening.
The question now, of course, is whether this will satisfy the GOP senators who predicated their vote for Trump’s Fed nominee, Kevin Warsh, on the DOJ dropping its Powell investigation. (Trump’s Fed meddling is of course not limited to the Powell investigation — his attempt to fire Lisa Cook, for instance, is still before the Supreme Court — but the investigation is where senators including, most outspokenly, the retiring Thom Tillis, R-NC, drew the line.)
At a hearing earlier this week, it became clear that Warsh’s nomination wasn’t going anywhere until the Trump administration backed off a little. We’ll see if GOP senators are willing to accept this as enough. (I’d be surprised if they didn’t.)
