By C. Ryan Barber
WASHINGTON -- Prosecutors from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office showed up unannounced Tuesday at the construction site for the Federal Reserve's headquarters renovation, a new provocation in their investigation of the central bank, according to a person familiar with the matter and a letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
After speaking with construction workers, two of Pirro's deputies were advised they couldn't access the site without preclearance, and they were given the contact information for the Fed's legal staff.
The investigation centers on the central bank's $2.5 billion renovation of two historic office buildings and a few minutes of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's testimony to Congress last summer about the construction project.
A Fed spokesperson declined to comment.
Pirro, citing significant cost overruns with the renovation, said any such construction project "deserves some serious review."
"And these people are in charge of monetary policy in the United States?" she said.
An outside lawyer for the Fed, Robert Hur, objected to the visit in a letter to Pirro's office and pointed to a federal judge's decision last month to throw out a pair of subpoenas issued to the central bank. In that ruling, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg concluded that the investigation appeared designed to "harass and pressure" Powell to bend to President Trump's desire for him to lower interest rates or step down as the central bank's leader.
"Should you wish to challenge that finding, the courts provide an avenue for you; it is not appropriate for you to try to circumvent it," Hur wrote. "I ask that you commit not to seek to communicate with my client outside the presence of counsel."
Hur said the prosecutors, Carlton Davis and Steven Vandervelden, appeared "without prior notice" at the construction site, where they asked for a tour and said they wanted to check on the progress of the renovation project.
Tuesday's flare-up raised new questions about an investigation that appeared on its heels -- and came the same day that the confirmation process advanced for Kevin Warsh, Trump's pick to succeed Powell.
Pirro's investigation has threatened to stall Warsh's confirmation beyond the end of Powell's term as Fed chair on May 15. Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) has said he would withhold support for any nominee until the criminal inquiry is resolved.
On Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee said it would hold Warsh's confirmation hearing next week, on April 21. In an interview on Fox Business, the panel's chairman, Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.), predicted that Pirro's investigation would end within weeks, clearing the path for Warsh's confirmation. Pressed over whether he knew the investigation would end, Scott said, "I don't have any evidence of that, no."
Trump has continued to berate Powell over interest rates and last month praised Pirro "for having the courage" to investigate the Fed. Trump toured the construction site with Powell last summer and afterward said he didn't want to second-guess cost overruns on two historic buildings that are undergoing a gut renovation.
But Trump in recent weeks has brought up his frustration with certain construction choices. He suggested the contractor on the job "is probably one of the richest men in the country right now."
Since her appointment as U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., last May, Pirro has emerged as a prosecutor particularly eager to bring cases against Trump's favored targets. When her office issued subpoenas to the Fed in January, Pirro called Trump and informed him of the development, the Journal reported.
Davis and Vandervelden were joined Tuesday by a special agent from the criminal investigations unit of Pirro's office, Matthew Fox-Moles, according to the letter reviewed by the Journal.
Last year, Pirro hired Davis and Vandervelden to work as special counsels, and she has assigned them some of her office's most politically sensitive cases, including a failed effort to bring charges against six Democratic lawmakers who released a video last fall reminding military servicemembers of their obligation to refuse illegal orders.
Write to C. Ryan Barber at ryan.barber@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 14, 2026 22:01 ET (02:01 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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