{"id":17608,"date":"2026-01-12T16:02:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T16:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/gop-angst-grows-over-powell-investigation\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T16:02:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T16:02:01","slug":"gop-angst-grows-over-powell-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/gop-angst-grows-over-powell-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP angst grows over Powell investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are expressing unease with the Justice Department\u2019s move to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a sign that the probe could become a major inflection point over GOP lawmakers\u2019 concerns about central bank independence.<\/p>\n

Powell announced Sunday<\/a> that the DOJ is investigating him over statements to Congress about renovations of the Fed\u2019s headquarters in Washington. He said the issue was a pretext to target him in response to President Donald Trump\u2019s frustration over the Fed\u2019s hesitance to aggressively lower interest rates.<\/p>\n

Sen. Kevin Cramer<\/a> (R-N.D.), a Powell critic who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement Monday that \u201cJerome Powell is a bad Fed Chair who has been elusive with Congress, especially regarding the overruns of the elaborate renovations of the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not believe however, he is a criminal,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope this criminal investigation can be put to rest quickly along with the remainder of Jerome Powell’s term. We need to restore confidence in the Fed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Banking Republicans are expected to meet tonight to discuss major cryptocurrency legislation the panel is aiming to hold a vote on this week \u2014 and some members are expecting to discuss the Powell probe as well, according to two Republicans with knowledge of the plan who were granted anonymity to discuss closed-door matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a lot of chatter,\u201d said one of the Republicans.<\/p>\n

The investigation is also a concern for some House Republicans. Rep. Mike Lawler<\/a> (R-N.Y.), who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, told Blue Light News: \u201cWhile I fundamentally believe Chairman Powell was late in addressing inflation under Joe Biden and has been woefully slow in lowering interest rates over the past year, the independence of the Federal Reserve is paramount and I oppose any effort to pressure them into action.”<\/p>\n

Asked about the Powell investigation on Fox Business on Monday, Sen. Roger Marshall<\/a> (R-Kan.) bashed the central bank chief and said the \u201cpresident is sending a message to everybody that we’re going to be looking out for fraud, waste and abuse.\u201d But, pressed by host Maria Bartiromo about whether Powell lied to Congress, Marshall said he would \u201clet the system play through here,\u201d and added: \u201cI think there’s other issues that we should be focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy over the renovations to the Fed\u2019s Washington headquarters has been amplified by Senate Banking Republicans, including Chair Tim Scott<\/a> (R-S.C.), who pressed Powell about the issue during a hearing last June following a New York Post article about cost overruns on the project.<\/p>\n

Now, the DOJ probe is threatening to derail the Senate\u2019s consideration of future Fed nominees. Sen. Thom Tillis<\/a>, a retiring North Carolina Republican who sits on the Banking panel, said Sunday he will \u201coppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed\u2014including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy\u2014until this legal matter is fully resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none,\u201d Tillis said in a statement. \u201cIt is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are expressing unease with the Justice Department\u2019s move to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a sign that the probe could become a major inflection point over GOP lawmakers\u2019 concerns about central bank independence. Powell announced Sunday that the DOJ is investigating him over statements to Congress […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}