Jeanine Pirro is sworn in as the new interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia during a ceremony hosted by US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, US on May 28, 2025.
Leah Millis | reuters
Federal prosecutors are still pressing the Federal Reserve over the Trump administration’s allegations of wrongdoing in the building’s ongoing renovation and Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress about them. But legal experts say the investigation of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro of the District of Columbia appears to be in trouble and she faces the challenge of appealing the judge’s ruling against her.
Investigators from Pirro’s office visited the Fed construction site on Tuesday, according to a note sent to prosecutors by the Fed’s legal team and seen by CNBC. The investigators appeared “without any prior notice” and asked for a tour, Feds lawyer Robert Hur wrote in the note.
“Any construction project that costs nearly 80% more than the original construction budget deserves some serious scrutiny,” Pirro said in a statement to CNBC.
The investigators’ visit comes at a turning point in Pirro’s investigation. James E. Boasberg, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled last month that prosecutors had not met the low threshold for the feds to seek a subpoena. He quashed the subpoena issued by Pirro’s office, and rejected prosecutors’ request to appeal the order on April 3.
Pirro has 30 days to appeal Boasberg’s decision quashing the subpoena under appeals court rules. It sets a date of May 4, by which time the Senate can attempt to move forward with an initial vote on a nominee to replace Powell, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh.
The fate of Warsh’s nomination is tied to the Powell investigation. Sen. Thom Tillis, R.-N.C., said as recently as Tuesday that he intends to vote against allowing Warsh to proceed as long as the Pirro investigation remains unresolved. Tillis and Powell have described the investigation as an attempt to intimidate the Fed into lowering interest rates.
Congress gave the Fed the power to set interest rates independently of politics, because it is popular to keep rates low, even if it risks inflation.
Warsh is set to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on April 21, though with Tillis putting her confirmation on hold, it’s unclear what will happen next. A hearing is a step the committee takes before voting on a nominee.
The investigators’ visit to the Fed, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, was likely an effort to break that impasse.
A prosecutor from Pirro’s office told Boasberg in March that the DOJ had “no knowledge” that there was inappropriate conduct by Powell and rejected the judge’s motion to present any arraignment without the defense’s presence. Boasberg ruled that prosecutors’ subpoenas were illegitimate because the government “had not presented any evidence of fraud.”
Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University who was head of the Appellate Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, said that without some new evidence, Pirro’s investigation of Powell would not survive judicial scrutiny.
Boasberg’s order did not stop the government from investigating, but it made it clear that the court wanted to see solid evidence.
Boasberg “left room for the government to move forward as appropriate,” Richman said. “Indeed the government’s refusal to show this is one reason it is difficult to appeal the order.” Richman said he believed the appeals court would conclude that Boasberg was correct in concluding that prosecutors had not met the minimum standard for issuing a grand jury subpoena.
Pirro has said that he believes he has room to grow. “She can certainly continue the investigation,” said a person familiar with Pirro’s thinking, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions about the ongoing investigation.
“Appealing against the decision is just a matter of issuing the summons,” the person said.
This leaves open the possibility that the appeal deadline could pass without a clear conclusion to the investigation. Both Tillis and Powell have said that it would not be enough for them to leave it quietly; They want to see a positive ending. Without it, Tillis could keep Warsh in limbo until the senator retires from Congress in January.
Pirro has said that he believes the Fed’s increased costs in renovating its headquarters are reason enough to pay attention to the central bank.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump continues to insist that Powell has done something wrong. Trump said on Wednesday that if Powell was not leaving on time, he would fire him. Powell’s term as chairman ends on May 15. He can continue as a board member till January 2028.
Trump is also searching for a new attorney general after firing Pam Bondi earlier this month. Politico has given this news Pirro is among the possible candidates To replace Bondi.
Pirro said at a news conference last week that he is happy in his current job.
— CNBC’s Steve Liesman Contributed to this report.