Powell\u2019s term as chair ends May 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump\u2019s nominee to succeed Powell, is expected to win approval from the Senate Banking Committee April 29, resulting in the full GOP-led Senate confirming Warsh prior to the May 15 date.<\/p>\n
Historically,<\/strong> Fed chairs have left the central bank when their chair term expires. Powell\u2019s term on the Board of Governors ends January 2028.<\/p>\n But Powell said last month that he would not step down in May unless a Department of Justice criminal investigation of him was \u201cwell and truly over, with transparency and finality.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPowell has absolutely earned a retirement<\/strong> at the time and of the nature of his choosing. He has given mightily to the country,\u201d David Wilcox, a former senior Fed economist who worked with Powell, told The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n \u201cBut history has a habit of sometimes being cruel<\/strong>, and it has conspired to put him in a circumstance where he has to make a difficult decision<\/strong>,\u201d Wilcox said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Justice Department said April 24 it would halt its criminal investigation of the Fed chair over allegations he lied to Congress about cost overruns<\/strong> of the $2.5 billion restoration of the central bank\u2019s Washington, D.C., headquarters, The Wall Street Journal noted. \u00a0<\/p>\n Powell and others called the unprecedented criminal probe of a sitting Fed Chair a \u201cpretext\u201d<\/strong> from the White House to force the Fed into drastically slashing the benchmark federal funds rate to 1% or below.<\/p>\n U.S. ?Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a longtime friend and ally of President Trump, said in an April 24 social media post that she had ?asked the Fed’s internal watchdog, the Office of Inspector General, to ?examine cost overruns in the $2.5 billion renovation of the Washington ?headquarters.<\/p>\n However, the Fed IG said in a statement following Pirro\u2019s X post that it has been investigating the renovations since July 2025 and was looking forward to completing its review. CNBC reported that Powell had asked the IG to look into the cost overruns at that time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A federal ?judge last month blocked ?two subpoenas from Pirro\u2019s office to the ?Fed’s Board of Governors, Reuters confirmed. The judge found the subpoenas were issued for the improper purpose of pressuring Powell to cave to ?Trump’s demands to rapidly lower interest rates or resign.<\/strong><\/p>\n Photo by Chip Somodevilla on Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Pirro had vowed to appeal the ruling and to continue the investigation just one day after Warsh\u2019s nomination hearing.<\/p>\n Retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis repeated his vow during the hearing that he would block Trump\u2019s pick unless the DOJ dropped its \u201cbogus\u201d <\/strong>investigation of Powell.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s get rid of this investigation, so I can support your confirmation,\u2019\u2019 Tillis told Warsh.<\/p>\n More Federal Reserve:<\/strong><\/p>\n Two days later, Pirro confirmed that the probe had ended. But the post added: \u201cNote well, however, that I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n That codicil sparked outrage from Senate Democrats and other political leaders.<\/p>\n Tillis said April 26 on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that he was ready to move forward on Warsh\u2019s nomination after conversations with DOJ staff.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have made it very clear that the current investigation is completely and fully ended<\/strong>,\u201d Tillis said, adding those discussions gave him the assurances he needed \u201cto feel like they were not using the DOJ as a weapon<\/strong> to threaten the independence of the Fed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signaled during the same \u201cMeet the Press\u201d program that the investigation was still active, pending <\/strong>the results of the Fed\u2019s IG review.<\/p>\n Blanche\u2019s comment suggests Powell\u2019s threshold may not be satisfied<\/strong>, even if Tillis\u2019 has been, Kurt Lewis, a former senior adviser to Powell who follows the central bank for Piper Sandler, told The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n Related: Markets reset Fed rate-cut bets as DOJ drops Powell probe<\/strong><\/p>\n In a note to clients April 27, Lewis said the odds Powell remains on the board at least until full resolution have gone up<\/strong> as a result.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Kalshi prediction market April 28 showed a 67% chance Powell would leave before August and 30% before June.\u00a0<\/p>\n The April 29 Federal Open Market Committee meeting is presumed to be Powell\u2019s last as Fed chair.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s a 100% probability the FOMC will hold rates steady at 3.50% to 3.75%, according to the CME Group\u2019s FedWatch Tool.<\/p>\n Powell\u2019s comments during the press conference<\/strong> following the FOMC\u2019s 2 p.m. statement will be his opportunity to address, or deflect, his immediate future plans.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It may also be the last post-FOMC press conference for a while.<\/p>\n Warsh has said he intends to bring \u201cregime change\u201d amid a tranche of reforms to Fed operations, including dropping the pressers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question is how fast he will be able to change the Fed,\u201d analysts at Evercore ISI wrote in a recent research note, Bloomberg reported. \u201cThis will depend in part on how fast the board and FOMC turn over \u2014 including whether Powell quits as governor<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Related: Incoming Fed Chair Warsh’s rate cut path is on a collision course with White House<\/strong><\/p>\n #HistoricFed #showdown #stake #Powell #weighs #major #decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Will he stay or will he go? The anticipated drama coming out of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting April 29 is whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell is going to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[402,1031,900,1033,907,1032,1034],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-popular","tag-decision","tag-historicfed","tag-major","tag-powell","tag-showdown","tag-stake","tag-weighs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}DOJ probe focused on Fed headquarters renovation costs<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/.image\/NDA6MDAwMDAwMDAyOTU2OTk5\/trump-powell-mhg-04-28-26.jpg?io=1&profile=rss\")
Tillis vowed to block Warsh nomination<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Tillis clears path to Warsh nomination\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Blanche says Powell investigation is still pending<\/strong><\/h2>\n
April 29 FOMC meeting could be Powell\u2019s last as chair<\/strong><\/h2>\n