A U.S. judge on Friday stood by his prior decision to block subpoenas issued in a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, setting up a likely appeal that could further delay President Donald Trump's move to install a more compliant central bank head.
Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C. rejected the Justice Department's bid to reconsider his earlier ruling, which had effectively halted the criminal probe into Powell.
Boasberg in a March 13 ruling determined that subpoenas to the Fed's Board of Governors in January were issued for the improper purpose of pressuring Powell to accede to Trump's demands to rapidly lower interest rates or resign.
The subpoenas, issued by Washington, D.C.'s top federal prosecutor Jeanine Pirro, a stalwart Trump ally, sought information about cost overruns in renovations at the Fed's headquarters and Powell's testimony to Congress last year about the project.
Boasberg, in Friday's ruling, said Pirro's office had "not come close to convincing the Court that a different outcome is warranted," adding that prosecutors had a "total lack of a good-faith basis to suspect a crime."
