Court Battles

Judge won’t reconsider decision blocking grand jury subpoenas of Fed, Jerome Powell

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by Ella Lee - 04/03/26 1:29 PM ET

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by Ella Lee - 04/03/26 1:29 PM ET

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A federal judge on Friday said he won’t reconsider his decision blocking Justice Department subpoenas of the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of Washington’s federal trial court, said the government “did not come close” to persuading him to reconsider his ruling that quashed two subpoenas served on the Fed’s board of governors seeking records from a $2.5 billion renovation project on which Powell testified before Congress.

Last month, the judge pinned his decision on “abundant evidence” that the subpoenas were part of a pressure campaign against Powell, who has frequently been the target of President Trump’s ire.

“The subpoena power ‘is not unlimited’ and may not be abused,” Boasberg wrote in a six-page ruling.

The Justice Department began investigating the Federal Reserve’s renovation of its headquarters earlier this year, following Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June about a critical need for updates to the central bank’s Marriner S. Eccles and Federal Reserve Board East buildings. The project was initially estimated to cost $1.9 billion but grew to $2.5 billion after changes to design, higher costs and other “unforeseen conditions.”

Boasberg’s decision to block the subpoenas caused Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to hold a press conference where she railed against the “activist judge” for having “neutered” the grand jury’s ability to investigate the Fed and Powell.

He explained in his Friday ruling that the legal question he faced was whether the subpoena’s “dominant purpose” was to pursue a legitimate investigation because the facts suggested wrongdoing or to pressure Powell into lowering interest rates or resigning.

Trump attacked Powell and other members of the Fed’s board for months for refusing to lower interest rates before his Justice Department began investigating.

Boasberg said that to resolve the question, the court had to probe the evidence available to back up the government’s assertions.

“The Government has missed this distinction,” the judge wrote. “It makes arguments and cites cases about its broad subpoena power and insists that it does not need evidence, but it ignores the fact that its total lack of a good-faith basis to suspect a crime is relevant to the second, separate question of the subpoenas’ true purpose.”

The Hill requested comment from Pirro’s office.

The Justice Department’s probe of the Fed is one of two major legal cases looming over the central bank.

The Supreme Court is weighing whether Trump had the authority to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Fed’s board of governors, despite long-standing legal protections for the board members. A decision is expected by summer.

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