A federal judge blocked the Justice Department on Friday from enforcing subpoenas issued against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, ruling the government failed to show any legitimate basis for the demands.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said in an opinion unsealed Friday that the subpoenas appeared designed to pressure Powell rather than investigate a crime. “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,” Boasberg wrote.
Boasberg said the Justice Department had not presented credible evidence that Powell had committed wrongdoing.
“The Government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime,” the judge wrote, adding that the explanations offered by prosecutors were “so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual.”
POWELL DEFENDS FED INDEPENDENCE IN FIRST QUESTIONS ABOUT DOJ INQUIRY
The ruling halts the subpoenas against Powell and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, dealing a setback to the DOJ’s effort to obtain the records.
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