Washington Prosecutor Jeanine Pirro: Pause on Investigation into Powell's Building Expenditures
Washington D.C. Prosecutor Jeanine Pirro announced that the investigation into the Federal Reserve building costs involving Chairman Jerome Powell will be halted. However, she has requested that the Federal Reserve's Inspector General continue to review the related expenditures and retains the option to restart the investigation if necessary.
The investigation focused on the cost issues of Federal Reserve building projects, which had raised concerns about the transparency of the central bank's internal budget. Previous reports in English media indicated that the Federal Reserve's spending on facility upgrades and security-related projects has been increasing, leading to stricter scrutiny on both financial and political levels.
Source: Public Information
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This decision essentially redraws the boundaries between "independence" and "accountability." The Federal Reserve, as the core monetary authority globally, has long been viewed as having its policy independence as the foundation for stabilizing the financial system. However, its budget and internal operations are not entirely free from political oversight, and this tension tends to be amplified during periods of rising fiscal pressure.
Transferring the investigation to the Inspector General, rather than continuing it through prosecutorial channels, means that the issue has been downgraded from "potential legal liability" to "internal audit and governance issues." This is a typical institutional buffering mechanism: it neither directly challenges the authority of the central bank nor completely abandons scrutiny of its expenditures.
On a deeper level, this reflects a long-standing contradiction within the U.S. power structure—monetary policy power is highly concentrated, but its costs and consequences are dispersed across fiscal and social dimensions. When interest rate cycles, fiscal deficits, and asset price fluctuations overlap, the political attention surrounding the Federal Reserve tends to rise in tandem.
Such events are typically not isolated but are part of macroeconomic cycles. During periods of tightening liquidity or increased fiscal pressure, central banks are more likely to become subjects of scrutiny, and controversies surrounding their transparency, expenditures, and decision-making processes will cyclically return.