From the outset, Donald Trump’s legal crusade against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has been as transparent as it was brazen. The president wanted Powell to lower interest rates, regardless of the impact on inflation, and when the Fed chair resisted, the Republican who appointed him started using the levers of power against him.
That effort failed in multiple ways. Even after Trump’s Justice Department launched a misguided criminal investigation, for example, Powell ignored the pressure, as he had a responsibility to do. This also led to a political pushback that proved swift, broad and bipartisan, with several congressional Republicans agreeing that it was a mistake to pursue the Fed chair with trumped-up charges.
It was also a legal fiasco. In March, a federal judge quashed the Justice Department’s subpoenas targeting Powell, emphasizing the fact that prosecutors “produced essentially zero evidence.”
With a key GOP senator making clear he’d block Kevin Warsh, Trump’s new Fed nominee, unless the White House abandoned its absurd crusade against Powell, it was in Trump’s interest simply to drop the matter, but by his own admission, he didn’t want to. As recently as Tuesday, the president appeared on CNBC, effectively admitted that he was helping steer the case and peddled new and evidence-free allegations against Powell.
One day later, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and an unflinching Trump loyalist, said she would forge ahead with the case against Powell, the facts be damned.
On Friday morning, however, she reversed course and seemed to throw in the towel. MS NOW reported:
The Justice Department has closed its criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the renovation of the central bank’s headquarters, removing an obstacle for Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Powell, to be confirmed to the role.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a close Trump ally, said in a statement on social media Friday that the inspector general for the Fed is instead conducting an inquiry into the building’s renovation costs.
It’s worth emphasizing for context that Pirro, a former Fox News host, left the door open to pursuing Powell again at some later date, but for all intents and purposes, the foolish case appears to have collapsed. With the Fed chair scheduled to retire next month, it seems unlikely to return.
The developments further suggest that Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina will stand down from his objections and allow Warsh’s confirmation process to advance accordingly.
Any time prosecutors abandon a case that was little more than a politically motivated abuse, it’s encouraging, but as the dust settles, there are broader lessons to be learned here.
Specifically, Powell didn’t flinch. The president of the United States went after him with a vengeance, trying everything he could think of, up to and including misusing the Justice Department, to get the Fed chair to yield.
But he didn’t. Powell just kept doing his job, without making any effort to appease Trump, cater to his ego, accommodate his demands, or offer some compromise.
The pressure was intense, but the Fed chair, who was awarded a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award last month, did the right thing anyway.
Let this be a lesson to the larger political world: The only way to lose a fight against Trump is to pursue a course rooted in appeasement. It’s true when it comes to news organizations; it’s true when it comes to law firms; it’s true when it comes to higher education; and it’s true when it comes to those in positions of authority who stand their ground in the face of presidential bullying and corrupt prosecutorial attempts at intimidation.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post Trump’s case against Jerome Powell collapses, proving the value of fighting back appeared first on MS NOW.
