Trump Folds as DOJ Drops Major Case in Shocking Move
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Transcript
41 segmentsYet more brazen transparency of just bullshit from this Trump regime. You remember, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has been under incessant attack by convicted felon Donald Trump. Why? Because Jerome Powell will not bend the knee and capitulate and agree to lower interest rates. I mean, The guy's the Federal Reserve Chair, like let him do his job. He also has a board of governors with whom he has to work and create and formulate and deal with interest rates. And yet Trump wants to continuously run interference and make this man's life miserable. He's gone so far as to pressure the Department of Justice to launch a baseless investigation. criminal investigation into Jerome Powell. And it started at the U.S. Attorney's Office, D.C. circuit, right? Over there, which was led by that doofus Ed Martin and is currently led by Box of Wine, Janine Piro. But just this morning... Look at what Jeanine Piro posted on X. Let me read the exact language to you because this is important. This morning, the Inspector General for the Federal Reserve has been asked to scrutinize the building costs overruns in the billions of dollars that had been borne by taxpayers. The IG has the authority to hold the Federal Reserve accountable to American taxpayers. I expect a comprehensive report in short order and I'm confident the outcome will assist in resolving once and from... all the questions that led this office to issue subpoenas. Now here's the punchline. Accordingly, I've directed my office to close our investigation as the IG undertakes this inquiry. Note well, however, that I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts weren't doing so. So that was this morning at 10.11 a.m. Now, as soon as that happens, all of the news, you know, the news alerts go out that the criminal investigation into Jerome Powell has been dropped by the U.S. Attorney's Office. But then we start getting all these weird, inconsistent things. We get Karoline Leavitt stepping forward and saying, no, no, no, investigation is not over. The inspector general has now taken it over. But please, it's not over. And even Piro to some extent, and her ex post said, you know, if something comes up, I won't hesitate to do a criminal investigation. I mean, talk about still having the acts. hanging over Jerome Powell. And it's the dumbest thing that you could do. Technically, Jerome Powell's chair of the Federal Reserve term is up May 15th. That's why we saw that circus sideshow of Senate confirmation hearing of Kevin Warsh on Tuesday, which I covered extensively at Sidebar Live with Katie Fang. And during...
that Senate confirmation hearing, this is what Senator Thom Tillis, who sits on that Senate making committee, like this is what Thom Tillis had to say. Take a listen. We have got to end this investigation. Big DOJ didn't know about it. The president didn't know about it. Let's get rid of this investigation so I can support your confirmation. Thom Tillis making it clear, right? If there is a criminal investigation pending, a Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, he will not vote to approve Kevin Warsh's nomination to be the next reserve chair. Clear as day. It was not the first time that Thom Tillis had expressed this kind of precondition for his approval of Kevin Warsh. So what did we see happen? Well, I don't know. That Senate Banking Committee hearing was on Tuesday. And wouldn't you know it? Less than two days, two full days later. What do you get? You get the charges being dropped, or the investigation, excuse me, the criminal investigation being dropped by the United States Attorney D.C., Janine Piro. But let's take a second to dig a little bit deeper into the legal stuff that was going on in that criminal investigation because it was going nowhere fast for Piro and the Trump DOJ. This investigation was launched over allegations of these overruns on renovations that were being done. And criminal grand jury subpoenas were issued in D.C. On March 13th, however, the Chief Judge James Boasberg, who we know so well here, don't we, at Katie Fang News, he has been fighting valiantly for the rule of law. Chief Judge James Boasberg on March 13th blocked the subpoenas that were being served on the Fed from Piro's office. In his ruling, Judge Boasberg wrote that the government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Jerome Powell of 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, end quote. Now, that is Chief Judge James Bosberg, but you know who else? Had an opinion on whether these cost overruns constituted a crime? Well, when did you know it? Senator Thom Tillis, take a listen to two different clips of his statements, Thom Tillis's statements, also on Tuesday. I don't have the D.C. Circuit tell me a crime was committed when seven members on this committee said it wasn't, including the chair. If we put everybody in prison in federal government that had had a budget go over,
We'd have to reserve an area roughly the size of Texas for a penal colony because of the way government projects work. Because here's the thing. If Janine Piro had taken an appeal of Judge Boasberg's quashing of those grand jury subpoenas, a resolution of that appeal would have taken months. And that would have further delayed Kevin Warsh making it across the finish line. Why? Because last month. Current Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the following, quote, I have no intention of leaving the board until the investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality. Okay, so it's like... What is it? Mountain, Mohammed, and all this other stuff happening, right? Here's the thing. You got Jerome Powell saying, I won't leave with a pending criminal investigation. You then have Piro's swearing to take an appeal, which we knew was going to even delay the resolution of that criminal investigation. You have Thom Tillis saying, to hell with confirming Kevin Warsh if there's a pending criminal investigation. So again, Trump said, oh yeah, I guess I gotta get my shit together and I guess I gotta sit there and actually dump this completely spurious, baseless, crappy investigation that had been going on. And here's the other thing I want to bring to your attention because I think this is so rich. The Fed's Inspector General had already been undertaking an evaluation of the renovation. So it's not like Pereiro announces today the criminal investigation is over. We're now handing it over to the Office of Inspector General. The Inspector General for the Fed had already been doing an evaluation of the cost overruns for this renovation. They issued a statement today that said, quote, this assessment includes our independent analysis of the project's substantial cost increases and overruns. We are actively working to complete our review and look forward to making the results available to the public and Congress upon completion, end quote. But do you remember what Thom Tillis said? He said, if you were to criminally investigate every person in D.C. basically, who had to deal with a cost overrun, you'd have to create a penal colony to be able to house all of them. Because it's just absurd. And we all know that the only reason why this criminal investigation was launched in the first instance is because Trump was trying to pressure Jerome Powell to get the hell out of his job. And to Jerome Powell's credit, what did he do? It was an unprecedented move. In January, Jerome Powell, who is like this poker-faced guy, right, he issued this statement about all of this, you know, all this michigas that was going on with this criminal investigation. I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one, certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve, is above the law.
But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure. This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress's oversight role. The Fed, through testimony and other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president. Talk about powerful and lowering the boon. I mean, Jerome Powell pretty much threw down the gauntlet in the face of the orange turd and was like, bring it on, bitches, because I don't have anything left to lose. And so... What we have seen here is a material unraveling of a pending criminal investigation. So the rule of law and the substantive legal issues and the merits were clearly being exposed for the fraud that that investigation was. And then you saw that it was politically... inexpedient, inconvenient for Trump to continue to put this pressure campaign on Jerome Powell because of the Kevin Warsh nomination. And so now you're also seeing this 180 in the span of 48 hours from the lead prosecutor, Gene Piro, on the status and the state of this criminal investigation. And, you know, I want to say the following, because I think this is really important. And give me a second because I just really wanted to. to share this with you. A couple of things. One, Trump has been going after also the Federal Reserve Governor, Lisa Cook. Do you remember how he was like, I can fire whoever the hell I want to fire. I'm firing her. And she was like, to hell you are. And this case went all the way to oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court. And Those Supreme Court oral arguments, I mean, it's reading tea leaves here, folks, but by all accounts, me and others that follow this case and follow the arguments, believe that it's going to end well for Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor. But I bring her up as another example of how Trump thinks that the weaponization of the DOJ and that the weaponization of the systems. is always going to come out in his favor when it's not. And you know, what's really funny here too is this. If I were Jerome Powell's lawyer, I would tell him not to leave. Why? Because remember, this is what he said about his departure. He said, I have no intention of leaving the board. Well, wait, wait one second, let me remind you this. Jerome Powell has a term as one of seven members of the feds board of governors until 2028. So even though his role as the chair is up in May,
Okay? If May 15th comes around and the Kevin Warsh nomination and confirmation hasn't happened, the law says that Jerome Powell continues as the acting chair until you get a new chair. But in the meantime, Jerome Powell also serves on the board as a governor until 2028. And remember, Jerome Powell said, I refuse to leave until this investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality. Jerome Powell said this just last month, March, 2026. So if our Jerome Powell's lawyer, I would tell him the following. I would say, This investigation is not well and truly over with transparency and finality if they're still putting this hanging over the head, this axe over your head, Mr. Jerome Powell, of a possible criminal investigation being renewed if Office of Inspector General decides that, you know, Piro thinks she has enough. I mean, it is just outrageous. And so this specter of possible... prosecution, this cloud of potential criminal exposure, if I'm Jerome Powell, I will not budge until I have an actual declaration that that freaking investigation is dead over and will never be revived to be some zombie criminal investigation. Absent those reinsurances, my ass ain't going anywhere if I'm Jerome Powell. Folks, we have to exercise and flex our power where we have it. And to Jerome Powell's credit, whoever thought we would find an everyday hero in the Federal Reserve chair? And yet, as you heard in just that small... clip of his bigger kind of statement that he issued in January once those grand jury subpoenas have been served on the Federal Reserve and him? Like, he made it really clear. I don't, I have served Republican and Democratic presidents and administrations, and I serve without fear or favor in the most literal of senses. And if there's anybody who occupies an important role for all Americans, regardless of party affiliation, it's the guy who's going to be sitting there alongside the Federal Reserve governors like, Lisa Cook that are going to help us guide us in economic uncertainty, especially that which is created by the convicted felon Trump himself. When our economy is in shambles because of Trump, when we are being plumped, like just pummeled financially because of Trump, the last thing that Trump should be rewarded with is being able to pick and choose illegally the people that serve in these critical positions. So folks, I'm telling you, Piro may say that this criminal investigation is over, but that don't necessarily mean that Jerome Powell is going to be on his way out.
At least I wouldn't let it happen. Be mad, be outraged, demand accountability. I am off to Rattlemore Cages. Katie Fang here. We launched the Katie Fang News channel in partnership with the Midas Touch Network so we could bring you the latest in legal and political news. Straight, no chaser. So if you're a fellow truth teller, hit that subscribe button and share the word about this channel so we can build a high information America together.