Tillis says he's ready to move ahead with confirming Warsh as Trump's
pick as Fed chair
[April 27, 2026]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican senator who had effectively blocked
confirmation of President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal
Reserve said Sunday he was dropping his opposition after the Department
of Justice ended its investigation of the current central bank chair.
The announcement by Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina removes a big
hurdle to Trump's effort to install Kevin Warsh, a former high-ranking
Fed official, in the job in place of Jerome Powell, long under White
House pressure to lower interest rates. Tillis' opposition was enough to
stall the nomination in the GOP-controlled Senate Banking Committee as
Powell neared the scheduled end of his term on May 15.
“I am prepared to move on with the confirmation of Mr. Warsh. I think
he’s going to be a great Fed chair,” Tillis told NBC’s “Meet the Press,”
two days after the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia said her
office’s investigation of the Fed’s multibillion-dollar building
renovations was over. Powell's brief congressional testimony last summer
about that work was also under review.
The Fed's internal watchdog is scrutinizing a project, now at $2.5
billion after earlier estimates had put it at $1.9 billion, that the
Republican president has criticized for cost overruns. Powell had asked
in July for the inspector general's review.
“I believe that there will not be any wrongdoing. Maybe we find a little
stupid here in terms of somebody responsible for the project making a
decision they shouldn't? Maybe. But it doesn’t rise to a criminal
prosecution. That was my problem to begin with because I feel like there
were prosecutors in D.C. that thought this was going to be a lever to
have Mr. Powell leave early," he said.
Tillis, who infuriated Trump in June for opposing his big tax and
spending cuts bill over Medicaid reductions and then announced he would
not seek reelection in 2026, added that he had received assurances from
the Justice Department that “the case is completely and fully settled …
and that the only way an investigation would be opened would be a
criminal referral from one of the most respect inspector generals.”
Important week for Fed leadership
The committee on Saturday said it planned to vote Wednesday on Warsh's
nomination. The ranking Democrat, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren,
responded with a statement that "no Republican claiming to care about
Fed independence should support moving forward the nomination of Kevin
Warsh, who proved in his nomination hearing to be nothing more than
President Trump’s sock puppet.”
Also Wednesday, Fed policymakers will meet and are expected to keep
their key interest rate unchanged for the third straight meeting,
shrugging off Trump's demands for a cut. At a news conference, Powell
could indicate whether he will remain on the Fed's board of governors
after his term as chair ends, an unusual but not completely
unprecedented step that would deny Trump the opportunity to fill another
seat on the seven-member board. Powell's term as a governor lasts until
January 2028.
At a hearing last week, Warsh told senators he never promised the White
House that he would cut interest rates and pledged to be “an independent
actor” if confirmed as chair. Hours before that, Trump had been asked in
a CNBC interview whether he would be disappointed if Warsh did not
immediately cut rates. “I would,” the president said.
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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell addresses students at
Harvard University, March 30, 2026, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP
Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
Without the constraints of a political campaign, Tillis has spoken
out forcefully about Powell, decrying the inquiry by U.S. Attorney
Jeanine Pirro, a longtime Trump ally, as a “vindictive prosecution”
and suggested it threatened the Fed’s longtime independence from
day-to-day politics. Tillis told NBC that he had gotten assurances
from the Justice Department that he needed "to feel like they were
not using DOJ as a weapon to threaten the independence of the Fed.
So this will allow Mr. Warsh to move on with his confirmation.”
On Saturday, Trump was asked by reporters whether there was now
smooth sailing for Warsh with the end of the Justice Department's
investigation. “I imagine it's smooth,” Trump said, adding that his
nominee “is going to be fantastic.” The president said he still
wanted to find out “how can a building of that size cost ...
whatever it’s going to be.”
Trump visited the Fed building in July and, in front of television
cameras, said the renovations would run $3.1 billion. Powell,
standing next to him, said after looking at a paper presented to him
by Trump, that the president's latest price tag was incorrect.
Justice Department pursues Trump adversaries
The investigation was among several undertaken by the Justice
Department into Trump’s perceived adversaries. For months it had
failed to gain traction as prosecutors struggled to articulate a
basis to suspect criminal conduct. Other efforts by the department
to prosecute Trump’s adversaries, including New York state Attorney
General Letitia James, a Democrat, and former FBI Director James
Comey, have also been unsuccessful.
Last month, a federal judge quashed Justice Department subpoenas
issued to the Fed in the investigation, describing their purpose as
“to harass and pressure Powell to resign” and open the path for a
new chair. A prosecutor handling the Powell case had acknowledged at
a closed-door court hearing that the government had not found any
evidence of a crime.
Pirro said Friday on X that she “will not hesitate to restart a
criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.” The
acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, told NBC on Sunday that
”there is no doubt that we will investigate" if the inspector
general finds evidence of criminal conduct.
Warsh is a financier and former member of the Fed’s board of
governors. Trump nominated him in January.
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