A federal judge in Washington on Thursday refused to wipe out the record of the government's legal losses in its attempt to investigate former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, delivering a sharp rebuke to the office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
According to CNBC, Chief Judge James Boasberg of the D.C. District Court denied Pirro's motion to vacate his earlier rulings, which had gone against her office during a monthslong legal fight over the Fed investigation. Boasberg's order was described as scathing and included media quotes and links to a YouTube clip as supporting evidence.
The legal saga began when Pirro issued a pair of subpoenas as part of an investigation into Powell. In March, Boasberg quashed those subpoenas, ruling that Pirro's effort was intended at least in part to "harass and pressure Powell" on behalf of President Donald Trump, who had been pushing publicly for lower interest rates. Boasberg's initial ruling held that evidence of political harassment raised the bar for allowing such an investigation to proceed, even though prosecutors generally can issue grand jury subpoenas on minimal suspicion.
Pirro's office then shifted strategy. She first said she would appeal the ruling. No appeal followed. She then dropped the investigation entirely in April, under pressure from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Tillis had been blocking the Senate confirmation of Kevin Warsh, Trump's nominee to replace Powell as Fed chair. Once Pirro dropped the investigation, Tillis lifted his blockade. Warsh was confirmed in May and is set to chair his first meeting of the Fed's rate-setting committee next week.
After dropping the investigation, Pirro's office filed the motion asking Boasberg to vacate his earlier rulings on the grounds that the matter was now moot. Boasberg denied that motion Thursday.
In his order, Boasberg drew on public statements made by Pirro and Trump outside the courtroom. He wrote that his earlier rulings were simply "using the President's explicit statements as evidence of what his deputies understood that he wanted." Boasberg also noted that Pirro had indicated in a CNN interview that she might reopen the investigation. "It sounds like you're going to keep trying to find out more," CNN host Jake Tapper said to Pirro in that interview. Boasberg wrote that "Pirro essentially confirmed that interpretation."
Boasberg's order addressed the broader legal stakes of granting Pirro's request. "If the Government got its way here, then any party that lost a court case could choose to moot the matter, erase an unfavorable decision, and freeze the accumulation and refinement of precedents," he wrote.
Powell stepped down from the Fed chair position as required by law but kept his separate seat on the Fed's board. He had wanted to make sure the legal threat to the Fed had genuinely ended before stepping back, even after Pirro said she had closed the investigation. Boasberg's order Thursday appeared to reflect that the threat may not have fully passed.
