District of Columbia Attorney Jeanine Pirro speaks during a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington on February 6, 2026.
Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro may have suspended a criminal investigation into outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, but she and her office remain at the center of a power struggle over the influential central bank. How he handles the impending appeal will help determine the extent of President Donald Trump’s influence over the Fed.
Mr. Pirro has until Monday to appeal a decision by District of Columbia Chief Judge James Boasberg that quashed the Fed’s subpoena.
What his office says in the filing will be crucial in determining how long Mr. Powell will remain at the Fed after his chairmanship ends, and in turn determining when Mr. Trump can appoint a new Fed director to replace him. It could also determine whether a de facto ceasefire between President Trump and the Fed takes hold or whether fighting resumes, potentially destabilizing markets.
The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment. The Fed declined to comment.
Mr. Pirro announced on April 24 that he was closing his investigation while Federal Reserve Inspector General Michael Horowitz investigated the cost of the renovations. But she left plenty of room to restart it.
“If the facts warrant it, we will not hesitate to reopen the criminal investigation,” Pirro said in the X post.
President Trump said shortly afterward that he believed the investigation was still ongoing. “It’s not being rescinded,” President Trump told reporters on April 25.
The Justice Department traditionally operates independently of the president, but during President Trump’s second term it has pursued cases against people it considers to be political opponents. Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted for the second time this week after a judge dismissed a previous indictment in November.
Pirro is asking the appeals court to overturn Boasberg’s decision to block the subpoena. This poses a problem for Powell. That’s because it suggests Mr. Pirro is trying to shut down the investigation just long enough to keep the threat alive and get Mr. Powell out of the way.
Mr. Powell will continue to monitor the Fed as a board member, and his legal team will closely monitor the appeal. He said he received assurances from Pirro’s office that “if we appeal the recent court decision, we will not seek to reopen the investigation or issue new subpoenas as part of that appeal.”
Mr Pirro said the appeal was about the underlying principles. Pirro argues that Boasberg is undermining his ability to investigate not just this case but broadly.
“When a federal judge believes he can stand at the door of a grand jury and block prosecutors from getting in, and when the United States Supreme Court says prosecutors can get in based on suspicion and hearsay, we have to appeal that decision,” Pirro said Thursday on Fox News.
But Mr. Pirro persisted in insisting that there was something fishy about the Fed’s reforms. “Cost overruns of billions of dollars can occur on very small projects,” she said.
Her office has been investigating the matter for six months, but no evidence of wrongdoing has been presented.
Sean P. Murphy, a former assistant U.S. attorney, said Pirro appears to be exaggerating his objections to the judge’s investigative abilities.
“Judge Boasberg is not saying you can’t subpoena someone again,” Murphy said. “He says he needs to know the facts.”
Pirro has said he is seeking to confirm his ability to issue subpoenas, but Murphy said the appeal could backfire. The high court could agree with Boasberg and set stricter limits on what constitutes a politically motivated investigation.
Because of these risks, Justice Department procedures require that appeals be approved by the Attorney General, the highest-ranking official reporting to the attorney general.
It is unclear how Mr. Pirro and senior Justice Department officials coordinated the investigation into Mr. Powell. The Justice Department has not commented on the assurances Mr. Powell received from Mr. Pirro’s office about the status of the investigation.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was asked Sunday whether he would commit to not reopening the investigation. He did not answer questions directly, instead referring to Fed Inspector General Horowitz. “If he finds evidence of criminal activity, I have no doubt that we will investigate,” Blanche said.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R.N.C.) dropped his hold on Fed chairman candidate Kevin Warsh, recognizing that the Pirro investigation is nearing completion. He and Powell said they believed the investigation would only be reopened if Horowitz revealed some new wrongdoing. But Blanche left open the possibility that the investigation could be reopened even if what the IG found was not criminal.
“Depending on what he finds, we’ll go from there,” Blanche said Sunday.
