Lawfare for Dummies, Monetary Edition

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 12, 2026 | WSJ Editorial Board

[karpov]

In the annals of political lawfare there’s dumb, and then there’s the criminal subpoena federal prosecutors delivered Friday to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. President Trump would do himself and the country a big favor by firing those responsible for this fiasco.

The subpoena relates to testimony Mr. Powell gave to Congress in June concerning renovations to the Fed’s office buildings in Washington, D.C. Those renovations raised a brief ruckus over the summer after Administration officials such as Russ Vought of the Office of Management and Budget accused the Fed of running over budget on a needlessly grandiose project.

Fair enough, although this is hardly the first government building project to cost more than advertised, and the Fed funds it from the central bank’s own resources rather than sapping tax revenue from Treasury. Mr. Trump seemed to lose interest in the imbroglio, although not before visiting the building site alongside Mr. Powell, both in hard hats.

Asked at that meeting if the project is “a fireable offense for Jerome Powell,” Mr. Trump replied, “Look, I would love to see it completed. I don’t want to put that in this category.”

Alas, someone forgot to tell the rest of the Administration to let the matter go. Our sources say Bill Pulte of the Federal Housing Finance Agency wrote a report that made its way to Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Ms. Pirro’s office sent the subpoena, though Attorney General Pam Bondi no doubt signed off. Presumably the gambit is to catch Mr. Powell for lying to Congress regarding the office renovations or scrounge for details in search of some other so far undetected offense.

---

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: federalreserve; jeromepowell; powell

[Skwor]

What they meant to say was there is dumb and then there is Wall Streer Journal dumb!

The citizens tire of your propaganda LSM

[Socon-Econ]

Can Trump honestly state that Powell is being investigated due to an office building construction rather than to his resisting cheaper money? If you believe that he can, I have a bridge to sell you.

[Stingray51]

Nothing is stopping the Fed / Powell from releasing the subpoena so we can all see whether he has actually been threatened personally or is being a drama queen. (Grand jury secrecy would typically not apply to the recipient of the subpoena, as far as I know.)