The battle between the Federal Reserve and Trump administration prosecutors accelerated over the past few weeks amid mixed signals and mutual suspicion, according to interviews with a half-dozen figures with knowledge of both sides of the dispute.
Late last month, Federal Reserve officials grew concerned that the Justice Department was preparing a criminal case against them when they received two casually-worded emails from a prosecutor working for Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington. The messages sought a meeting or phone call to discuss renovations at the central bank’s headquarters, according to three people familiar with the matter, who like most others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation.
The emails, sent Dec. 19 and Dec. 29, came from Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlton Davis, a political appointee in Pirro’s office whose background includes work for House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky), the people said.
The messages struck Fed officials as breezy in tone.
Much more here.
Meanwhile, there’s this somewhat surprising development:
Kevin Hassett, chair of the White House economic council, said that he expects there is “nothing to see here” when it comes to the ongoing criminal investigation of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell by the justice department. In an interview with Fox News, Hassett said that he wishes the Fed had been “more transparent” when it comes to Powell’s congressional testimony about the ongoing renovations to the central bank that are at the heart of the probe.
MMFA has also run a thoughtful analysis of television celebrity Jeanine Pirro’s role in not only the anti-Powell clown car but the full Trump regime:
Pirro’s “blind obedience to President Trump,” as (Se. Adam) Schiff put it, was readily observable when her nomination came up for a Senate vote in August — but Republicans voted in lockstep for her confirmation. Now Republican senators like Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are saying that the Powell probe goes too far — but as with Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) criticism of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s antivax moves, they’ve already yielded their strongest card by supporting the nomination in the first place.
DEVELOPING…