Prosecutors working for Jeannine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, made an unannounced visit to the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Tuesday.
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Three officials from Pirro’s office arrived at the Fed’s headquarters construction site in downtown Washington and said they wanted a “tour” according to an email from the central bank’s outside counsel, Robert Hur to Pirro’s office which was seen by NBC News.
Pirro’s deputies also said they wanted to “check on progress” in the years long renovation of the Fed’s historic buildings overlooking the National Mall, Hur said.
In Hur’s email on Tuesday, he indicated that investigators were turned away from the site.
The surprise move by Pirro’s office came as its investigation into congressional testimony Powell gave last year about the Fed’s renovation project has been rapidly losing steam.
The probe first broke into public view in January, when Powell announced that subpoenas had been served to the central bank.
“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president,“ Powell said in a Sunday night video statement.
On March 13, Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge on the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., agreed with Powell.
In a ruling, Boasberg blocked the subpoenas that Pirro’s office had served on the Fed, saying, “the Government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime.”
On Tuesday, Hur pointed to Boasberg’s ruling in his email.
“As you know, Chief Judge Boasberg has concluded that your interest in the Federal Reserve’s renovation project was pretextual,” wrote Hur.
“Should you wish to challenge that finding, the courts provide an avenue for you; it is not appropriate for you to try to circumvent it.”
Pirro lost a second attempt to revive the quashed subpoenas on April 3. Her office could appeal to a higher court, but has not yet done so.
Hur concluded, “I ask that you commit not to seek to communicate with my client outside the presence of counsel.”
In a statement Tuesday night, Pirro suggested the investigators were justified in having tried to inspect the renovation project despite the judge’s ruling.
“Any construction project that has cost overruns of almost 80% over the original construction budget deserves some serious review,” she said in a statement. “And these people are in charge of monetary policy in the United States?”
But the more immediate effect of Tuesday’s visit will be to further complicate the Senate confirmation process for Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed Powell.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina says he will not vote to advance Warsh’s nomination until the Justice Department drops its probe of Powell and the renovations.
But in a coincidence that has already raised some eyebrows in Washington, the visit by Pirro’s team was the same day the Senate Banking Committee announced the date of Warsh’s confirmation hearing, April 21.
Also on Tuesday the committee’s chair, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said he was “very confident that the DOJ will wrap this up very soon.”
“All evidence I’ve seen, all fingers point in the direction of having this wrapped up in the next few weeks,” Scott said on Fox Business Network.
Yet as of Tuesday night, Warsh’s confirmation vote was still blocked.
“Kevin’s a perfect candidate, and that’s why it’s so frustrating that somebody in DOJ in February, decided that they were going to maybe garner favor from somebody in the White House by trying to invoke a criminal investigation against Jerome Powell,” Tillis told NBC News in an interview that was also on Tuesday.
“I don’t want to reward bad behavior,” Tillis added. “Recognize there’s not sufficient evidence to continue a criminal investigation, end it, and I will vote for Kevin Warsh.”
Late Tuesday night, Tillis posted a photo on social media of “The Three Stooges” with the caption, “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. at the crime scene.”
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