Trump says he still wants answers on Fed building costs after DOJ probe

A day after U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced that she had ordered her office to close its investigation into a construction project for the Federal Reserve, President Donald Trump said he wanted to know what happened.

“Well, I want to know that,” the president told reporters before boarding Air Force One at Florida’s Palm Beach International Airport on Saturday after a reporter asked if he agreed with Pirro’s decision.

“You know, it wasn’t dropped,” he continued. “They’re investigating everything related to the crisis. What I want to see with the IG is how can a building that I could build for $25 million cost $4 billion? That’s a big thing.”

Trump also mentioned Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, saying “he was responsible.”

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“So we’ll get to the bottom of it,” he added. “Yes, I think Jeanine is great. And she’s worked with other people on this. I’m telling you, I want to find out, I have an obligation to find it — it was done during Biden, but I have an obligation to find out how it was done — I would have built that building for $25 million and I would have had money left over. And it would have been open a long time ago.”

The Fed’s website stated that the Fed had an approved budget of $2.46 billion for the renovation, but exceeded the budget due to reasons such as more asbestos than expected and increased costs during the renovation.

Pirro said Friday that Michael Horowitz, the Fed’s inspector general, will take over the investigation, moving it out of the hands of federal prosecutors and into the hands of the longtime government watchdog.

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U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced her office had closed its investigation into the Federal Reserve on Friday. (Nathan Howard/Reuters)

Powell was under investigation for statements he made to Congress regarding the management of renovation costs.

In a video announcement in January, Powell announced that the Justice Department had launched an investigation into the Fed, describing it as an unprecedented attempt to use “intimidation” to force the Fed to lower interest rates.

Trump and Powell’s relationship was improving before the investigation increasingly rockyTrump became disillusioned with interest rates and began targeting Powell, whom he nominated in 2017. Trump called Powell a “idiot” and demanded that he lower interest rates “immediately” in March.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has a background in finance and sits on the Senate Banking Committee, had vowed to block Kevin Warsh’s confirmation due to the Justice Department’s investigation after Trump nominated Warsh to replace Powell, whose term ends May 15.

Tillis had claimed that the Justice Department’s investigation was political and would improperly interfere with markets, and accused Pirro of taking “brownie points” from Trump by opening the investigation. “This is not cool,” Tillis said in a television interview in February.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell claimed in January that the investigation was political. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

At his confirmation hearing this week, Tillis told Warsh, who previously served on the Fed Board of Governors, that he had “extraordinary authority” but could not vote to advance his Senate nomination until the Justice Department concluded its investigation.

Horowitz, who will now investigate the costs of the Fed building renovation, drew both praise and criticism from Republicans during his more than decade-long tenure as Justice Department inspector general. He was one of several high-profile inspectors general spared during Trump’s historic selection of government watchdogs last year, allied with key figures like House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

Pirro’s closure of the investigation could pave the way for Warsh’s candidacy.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he cannot vote for Kevin Warsh’s nomination to chair the Federal Reserve in the Senate until the Justice Department concludes its investigation. (Al Drago/Bloomberg)

Trump said he wanted the investigation to be completed “on behalf of the country.”

Referring to the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, which he sold in 2022 and whose name was changed to Waldorf Astoria, the President said, “Building a hotel is much more difficult and much more expensive than building an office.”

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He continued, “I want to know how much a building that size might cost. In the meantime, no one knows what’s going to happen. Kevin is going to be great. Kevin Warsh may never get into that building.”

Trump told reporters his candidacy should now go smoothly. “But whether it is or not, someone needs to figure out why the building that was supposed to cost $25 million ended up costing billions of dollars. And you know why they need to learn this? For other buildings, because this is not the only building. “I think this is the most serious example of this.”

Fox News’ Ashley Oliver and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.