Senate Republicans are rushing to defend Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell from a Department of Justice (DOJ) criminal investigation that Powell says is politically motivated and aimed at undercutting the Fed’s independence.
GOP lawmakers are challenging the Trump administration’s investigation of Powell a week after five Republican senators voted to advance a war powers resolution to bar Trump from taking military action against Venezuela without congressional authorization.
The loudest warning shot against the White House came from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, who accused Trump’s advisers of deliberately trying to undercut the Fed’s independence and threatened to block the president’s nominees to the Fed until the investigation is “fully resolved.”
He said the criminal probe into Powell’s testimony before Congress last year over the $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed’s headquarters in Washington raises questions about the “independence and credibility of the Department of Justice.”
The federal trade court judge overseeing the refund process for President Trump’s tariffs ordered the administration...
