Tillis said Sunday that he was ready for the Senate to proceed with President Donald Trump’s pick for Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, after the Justice Department concluded an investigation tied to current Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Tillis, the Republican senator who had effectively stalled the nomination, said the change removes the main obstacle to moving Warsh through the confirmation process as Powell’s term as chair approaches its scheduled end on May 15.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Tillis said, “I am prepared to move on with the confirmation of Mr. Warsh. I think he’s going to be a great Fed chair.” Tillis said he had received assurances from the Justice Department that the case was settled, and that any reopened investigation would require a criminal referral.
Tillis’ shift came after the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia said her office’s probe of the Fed’s multibillion-dollar building renovations was over. The internal Fed watchdog is scrutinizing a renovation project that has grown in estimated cost since earlier figures, according to the report.
The Justice Department investigation was among several efforts the department pursued into Trump’s perceived adversaries, the report said, and it struggled to gain traction in prosecutors’ efforts to articulate a basis for criminal conduct. A federal judge previously quashed Justice Department subpoenas issued to the Fed, describing their purpose as to “harass and pressure Powell to resign” and to open the path for a new chair, and a prosecutor handling the Powell case acknowledged at a closed-door hearing that the government had found no evidence of a crime.
Powell, in earlier testimony, said he believed “there will not be any wrongdoing,” while also acknowledging the possibility of “stupid” decisions by people responsible for the project that would not rise to criminal prosecution. Tillis has previously characterized the inquiry as threatening Fed independence from day-to-day politics, and on Sunday he said he needed assurances that prosecutors were not using the Justice Department “as a weapon” to threaten the Fed’s independence.
The nomination is slated to be voted on Wednesday by the Senate Banking Committee, after the committee said Saturday that it planned to advance Warsh to that vote. In a statement, the ranking Democrat, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, said no Republican who claims to care about Fed independence should support moving forward with the nomination of Warsh, characterizing Warsh as having proved at his hearing to be “nothing more than President Trump’s sock puppet.”
As the confirmation fight advances, Powell and the Fed face a separate countdown: a Fed leadership meeting is expected Wednesday, and policymakers are anticipated to keep the key interest rate unchanged for the third straight meeting, according to the report. Powell could also indicate at a news conference whether he plans to remain on the Fed’s board of governors after his chair term ends, which would be an unusual step that could affect how quickly Trump might fill additional seats; Powell’s term as a governor runs until January 2028.
The nomination fight has also played out alongside questions of rate policy. Warsh told senators at a hearing last week that he had not promised the White House that he would cut interest rates and said he would be “an independent actor” if confirmed as chair, the report said. Trump, when asked earlier this month on an interview, said he would be disappointed if Warsh did not immediately cut rates.
In addition to Tillis, Trump’s nomination has drawn attention from other political figures tied to the Justice Department probe. The report noted that Jeanine Pirro said on X on Friday that she “will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so,” and it also cited acting Attorney General Todd Blanche saying on NBC Sunday that “there is no doubt that we will investigate” if the inspector general finds evidence of criminal conduct.
At the same time, the broader Justice Department track record in cases tied to Trump’s adversaries has included unsuccessful attempts to prosecute other figures, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York state Attorney General Letitia James, the report said. Trump nominated Warsh in January, and Warsh is a financier and former member of the Fed’s board of governors.