Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell revealed in a defiant statement late Sunday that the US Department of Justice is threatening him with criminal charges, a step the central bank chief condemned as “intimidation” for not bowing to President Donald Trump’s demands on interest rate policy.
“This unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure,” said Powell.
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Powell, whose term as Fed chair ends in May, has repeatedly defied Trump in public, dismissing the president’s threat to remove him from the helm of the central bank as unlawful and, at one point, fact-checking Trump to his face about the estimated cost of Fed renovations.
Powell has also publicly blamed Trump’s tariff policies for driving up inflation.
“It’s really tariffs that are causing the most of the inflation overshoot,” Powell said last month, following the central bank’s December 10 meeting. The Fed cut interest rates three times last year, bringing them down by a total of 75 basis points.
But Trump has pushed for much more aggressive rate cuts and attacked Powell—who does not have sole authority over interest rate decisions—as a “moron” and “truly one of my worst appointments.”
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, applauded Powell’s “bold defense of the rule of law” and said that Fed policy “should not be subject to intimidation and bullying by Trump loyalist prosecutors.”
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