At the risk of whiffing at a letter-high fast ball, or completely striking out, I want to write a brief note on this Jay Powell subpoena business, in the hope that calmer heads will prevail, the whole matter will go away, and we can have an orderly transition to a new Fed chairman as soon as possible.
Mr. Powell has done more to undermine Fed independence than anybody I can think of in recent times, as I have written many times before. I don’t want to repeat the bill of goods against Powell, an awfully political Fed Chair. But in order to hasten his departure, my long-time friend Jeanine Pirro, now U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, can play a key role.
There’s nobody better than Jeanine. But as she herself has been quoted, the subpoena served up to Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve, may have prematurely initiated a legal process that she said to Fox Digital quote “is not a threat.”
Let me continue reading from Jeanine’s statement “The word ‘indictment’ has come out of Mr. Powell’s mouth, no one else’s. None of this would have happened if they had just responded to our outreach.”
Two emails were apparently sent to the Fed over the winter holidays for information regarding their Taj Mahal cost overruns, but without urgency or mention of a criminal investigation. This was before the Fed got the subpoena. So at that point with allegedly no Fed response, one of the smartest people I know, and one of my favorite prosecutors, Jeanie Pirro, may have pulled the trigger just a little too fast. And then when all hell broke out, she said quote “this office makes decisions based on the merits, nothing more, nothing less. We agree with the Chairman of the federal reserve that no one is above the law and that is why we expect his full cooperation.”
Well, I agree with my favorite prosecutor, that decisions must be based on the merits. But a cost overrun in Washington DC just doesn’t seem particularly meritorious. If that’s a criminal action, then most of the people in and around DC will be in jail. But the jails aren’t big enough. Cost overruns are the coin of the realm, and everybody knows it. I don’t want to justify it; I’m just being realistic. What’s more, although I cannot confirm completely, it is alleged that Mrs. Pirro’s office did not inform main Justice Department before taking this controversial action. If that’s true, it’s a no no.
But here’s the thing, so far as we know, no grand jury has yet been impaneled. No charges have been filed against Mr. Powell or the Federal Reserve. And the President himself has come up with plausible deniability when he said I don’t know anything about it and denied involvement in the DOJ’s Fed subpoenas.
So, I’m just saying the stage can be set for a speedy solution. Perhaps Ms. Pirro would convene a meeting with Mr. Powell to discuss Fed cost overruns. And then call the whole thing quits.
There’s really no there, there. Then we can get on with the crucial business of appointing a new Fed chair who will pilot Mr. Trump’s booming economy and an independent Fed.
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