Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Sunday he will vote to confirm Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve, after initially refusing to in protest of the Department of Justice investigation into current chair Jerome Powell.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., announced Friday that her office concluded its probe, which centered on a renovation at the Fed’s Washington headquarters. Instead, she said, the Federal Reserve’s inspector general will be looking into the matter.
Calling Warsh an “outstanding nominee,” Tillis said it’s time for the Fed to move beyond this “distraction.”
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“I have been clear from the start: the U.S. Attorney’s Office criminal investigation into Chair Powell was a serious threat to the Fed’s independence, and it needed to end before I could support Kevin Warsh’s confirmation,” Tillis said on X. “I welcome the Inspector General’s investigation. This is a necessary and appropriate measure, and I have confidence it will be conducted thoroughly and professionally.”
Tillis said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that over the weekend, he received the assurances from the DOJ he needed to feel like the agency was not being used as a weapon to threaten the Fed’s independence.
Pirro dropped the DOJ investigation into Powell after a federal judge blocked two subpoenas that prosecutors had issued to the Federal Reserve. She said in her Friday announcement, though, that she “will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.”
The DOJ’s investigation of Powell started after Trump harshly criticized Powell and complained that he, as well as others on the Federal Reserve Board, were not lowering interest rates as rapidly as he wanted.
Powell previously said that it was an act of “political pressure or intimidation,” and denied any wrongdoing.
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is expected to take up Warsh’s nomination this week, after which it will move to the full Senate for a vote.
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