Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Friday blocked Justice Department subpoenas issued to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, ruling the government failed to show evidence of wrongdoing tied to a probe into the Federal Reserve’s office renovation project.
Boasberg wrote that “a mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning.”
He added that the government had produced virtually no evidence suggesting Powell committed a crime, writing its justification for the subpoenas was “so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual.” The court concluded the subpoenas were issued for an improper purpose and ordered them quashed.
