{"id":18630,"date":"2026-02-04T16:16:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tim-scott-on-doj-probe-into-powell-i-do-not-believe-that-he-committed-a-crime-in-fed-hq-testimony\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:16:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:16:51","slug":"tim-scott-on-doj-probe-into-powell-i-do-not-believe-that-he-committed-a-crime-in-fed-hq-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tim-scott-on-doj-probe-into-powell-i-do-not-believe-that-he-committed-a-crime-in-fed-hq-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Scott on DOJ probe into Powell: \u2018I do not believe that he committed a crime\u2019 in Fed HQ testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Senate Banking Chair <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/151800\" data-person-id=\"151800\">Tim Scott<\/a> on Wednesday said he did not believe Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell committed a crime during his congressional testimony last year about the central bank\u2019s headquarter renovations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was the one asking the questions,\u201d he said on Fox Business. \u201cJay Powell was responding to me. Obviously, he and I have very, very strong disagreements on many issues, everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said it was time for a new head of the central bank and called Powell \u201cinept\u201d but added: \u201cineptness or being incompetent is not a criminal act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe what he did was made a gross error in judgment,\u201d Scott said. \u201cHe was not prepared for that hearing. I do not believe that he committed a crime during the hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department issued subpoenas last month to the Fed, probing his statements to Congress, a fact revealed by Powell himself in an unprecedented video message where he accused the administration of using the investigation to pressure him to lower interest rates. Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/192907\" data-person-id=\"192907\">Thom Tillis<\/a> (R-N.C.), saying he fears for the Fed\u2019s independence, has said he will not vote to advance any Fed nominees until the administration has finished its probe.<\/p>\n<p>Scott said the issue would be \u201cresolved,\u201d adding: \u201cThom Tillis will be voting for Kevin Warsh as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tillis has spoken positively of Warsh but said his stance regarding the DOJ investigation has not changed.<\/p>\n<p>Scott\u2019s comments mark the first time that the powerful banking head has substantively weighed in on the administration\u2019s move.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott on Wednesday said he did not believe Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell committed a crime during his congressional testimony last year about the central bank\u2019s headquarter renovations. \u201cI was the one asking the questions,\u201d he said on Fox Business. \u201cJay Powell was responding to me. Obviously, he and I have [&hellip;]<\/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-18630","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\/18630","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=18630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}