＂The Fed Got Caught＂ - DOJ DROPS THE HAMMER on Powell Over $2B SCANDAL
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Summary
The FBI is investigating the Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, for allegedly lying to Congress about a $2.5 billion project to renovate the building where he testified in front of the Senate Banking Committee in June of last year.
Transcript
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Federal prosecutors open investigation into Federal Chair Powell.
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Yep, they're going after Jerome Powell, which is steering up a lot of conversation.
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Rob, is this him saying it, that it's happening?
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On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas,
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threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June.
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That testimony concerned, in part, a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings.
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I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy.
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No one, certainly not the Chair of the Federal Reserve, is above the law.
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But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure.
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This new threat is not about my testimony last June, or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings.
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The Fed, through testimony and other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project.
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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,
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rather than following the preferences of the President.
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This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions,
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or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.
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I have served at the Federal Reserve under four administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike.
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In every case, I have carried out my duties without political fear or favor, focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum.
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So, what he did was the Fed chairman, Powell, was in front of Congress because to renovate a building, an individual building,
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Now, when you look at the Department of Defense who once got caught paying $6,000 for a simple hammer,
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you know that when the government is paying for things, there's graft, there's kickbacks, there's things, there's all these allegations.
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I'm not saying that there was that on the Fed building, but all those allegations, usually when there's audits, really go, you know, point bad.
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So, last year, in the ad there, there it is, Federal Reserve blows $2.5 billion on Palace of Versailles headquarters.
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So, Powell was over there, said a couple things that in Congress turned out to be not perfectly correct,
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but no one, including the Congressional Committee, thought that Powell was out and out lying the way, say, Minneapolis-level fraud lying.
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Well, Trump, at the same time, has been putting pressure on Powell, as has Fannie and Freddie, you know, Bill Pulte,
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has been pushing on Powell to lower interest rates to see if we could help the housing market a little bit or a little bit more.
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And Trump also wants to lower those rates for, Pat, U.S. debt is coming due, and it's going to be refinanced.
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He wants it refinanced at lower interest rates.
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Well, the Fed is now saying, okay, the federal investigators of doing this, and this is Powell saying,
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I think this is a little bit over the top considering what's going on at the Fed building,
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and I think they're using it to exert political pressure on me regarding interest rates.
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Suddenly, this is the president, you know, pushing politically because he didn't like my answer,
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and so now he's having people investigate the building.
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I think there's a little of both going on, Pat, quite frankly.
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There is pressure on Powell to lower interest rates from the White House and from the Secretary Besant.
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But there also is, let's face it, yet again, the American taxpayer paying 20x what they should be paying for something.
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And so, somebody needs to be, and if the head of the Fed, who's a political position, is managing a building project,
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You're not going to take a career policy guy and have him manage a building project.
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It takes the special people to hold developers' feet to the fire, keep your bids low, get your delivery dates,
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and not all those phone calls are going to be pleasant.
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So, if Trump Powell is managing a renovation, it kind of doesn't surprise me that a policy wonk, you know,
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ends up, you know, with his you-know-what stuck in the shredder because the thing is out of control.
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You've got to know what it looks like to the average person.
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The average person who's looking at this, Tom, is saying, you're not lowering the rates, I'm coming after you.
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Yeah, so if you look at the average person, the average person is saying, screw Jerome Powell,
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all I care about is lower the rates, I want to refinance.
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But the other side, you can also sit there and say, flip the, you know, tables.
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And, you know, if it happens the other way around and it's not a term that you're running
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and the president is Joe Biden doing this to Jerome Powell, what would you be saying?
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Would you be sitting there saying, I agree with him?
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You just have to know, when is his time up, Rob?
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I mean, for four months to do that, you know, you don't want to just wait four more months
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Adam, if you got some thoughts on this, we'll go.
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Yeah, nobody's surprised to see Trump beefing with Jerome Powell.
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I kind of said it's like an East Coast, West Coast rap beef.
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So the reality is we shouldn't have Jerome Powell speaking.
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The Fed doesn't speak unless there's some major problems, usually, unless they're announcing
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You know, monetary policy via the Fed, they have two primary components.
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Setting the interest rate, which Trump is basically pissed about.
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Right now, the current Fed fund rate is around three and a half, three, maybe four at the most.
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The prime rate is around six and a half, seven.
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Unemployment is basically right where we need it to be, under 5%, I think around four, four and a half percent.
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As much as I give Trump credit, and I'm completely all in on the Trump MAGA 2.0 state of affairs in America,
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The worst that's going to happen to him is exactly what he's dealing with, Trump's pressure and intimidation.
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And he has four more months until he can go retire.
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Let me tell you what's going on and who the real MVP in America is the last four weeks, the last three weeks.
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That, unfortunately, they will not get the credit.
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You will not be able to give to their GoFundMe.
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You will not be able to do anything with those guys.
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You know who the real MVP the last few weeks has been in America?
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When I was in the Army, I asked my orders to be, I was going to go be 18 Delta, 5th group.
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I was going to re-enlist six years, go to DLI, go to SEER school, go to, you know, airborne, go to Special Forces.
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And then I was going to go straight to Vicenza, Italy, to be in that area.
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The stuff you're hearing about on how they're going in in Venezuela and how they got them, the reports that are coming out, unreal.
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And by the way, you know who's watching that very quickly?
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Khamenei and Iran better be watching very closely because our Delta Force is really strong.
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If they want to do something, they could get a lot of stuff done.
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