US prosecutors have dropped their criminal investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell, in a breakthrough that could pave the way for the Senate to confirm Kevin Warsh as the country’s top central banker.Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for the District of Columbia, said in an X post on Friday that she had told her office to “close our investigation” into cost overruns in a Fed building project and had passed the probe to the central bank’s inspector general.
The move could clear hurdles for Warsh as he seeks confirmation through a majority in the Senate. Some Republican senators, led by North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, have refused to back his nomination because of the criminal probe.
Tillis, a member of the Senate banking committee overseeing Warsh’s nomination, this week said he would support the prospective central bank chair “once the [Department of Justice] drops their bogus investigation into chairman Powell that threatens the independence of the Fed”. The senator did not immediately respond to requests for comment.