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The Federal Reserve’s gold-plated renovation of its DC headquarters is obscene, but Team Trump’s moves toward building a criminal case against Fed chief Jerome Powell are a gift to the president’s critics — and all too likely to backfire.
Back in April, The Post broke the story of the appalling cost overruns in the Powell-overseen $2.5 billion “Palace of Versailles” remake of the Fed’s HQ, 32% above the still-eye-raising 2019 estimate of $1.9 billion.
Powell’s outraged denials only made him look worse; his testimony to Congress on the debacle earned him a perjury referral.
But if we criminalize every government cost over-run, the trials will run to next century. (And surely the first prosecution should be over California’s high-speed rail to nowhere, now heading toward $100 billion over budget with not a foot of track yet laid.)
Powell’s term ends in April, anyway — and ousting him over this is sure to panic the markets, amid near-universal belief that it’s a political prosecution motivated by Trump’s fury at Powell’s delays in cutting interest rates.
Any Powell prosecution (especially by Trump loyalist Jeanine Pirro’s office) will seem an assault on the Federal Reserve’s independence — not just freaking out US markets, but undermining global confidence in the dollar.
It would also put the other Fed governors’ backs up, encouraging them to keep Powell on the board after his term as chair ends.
Democrats’ transparent “lawfare” against Trump was one reason moderates went his way in the last election; if voters think he’s doing the same thing, they’ll lean the other way this November — handing the House to Dems and setting up yet another impeachment nightmare.
Pirro needs to back off now, or she’s brewing a needless disaster for the president — and the nation.