Donald Trump’s nominee for Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh is facing his Senate confirmation hearing as the president looks to reshape a powerful global economic institution.
Trump has pushed for criminal investigations into current chair Jerome Powell over renovations at the central bank’s home in Washington, D.C., while the president continues to demand the Fed lower interest rates even as fuel prices surge with the U.S. war with Iran that has upended global markets.
Department of Justice investigators reportedly showed up unannounced at the central bank last week despite a federal judge blocking an investigation that appeared designed to “harass and pressure” Powell.
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9:45 a.m. — Warsh faces key obstacle from a member of Trump’s own party
Trump has spent years waiting for the chance to remove Powell, but Warsh’s confirmation faces a significant hurdle on the Senate Banking Committee: Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who has criticized the Justice Department investigation into Powell and said he would withhold support for Trump’s pick until the case was dropped.
A federal judge’s ruling that blocked the probe “confirms just how weak and frivolous the criminal investigation of Chairman Powell is and it is nothing more than a failed attack on Fed independence,” he said in a statement last month.
“We all know how this is going to end and the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office should save itself further embarrassment and move on,” he added.
