Blanche says the Justice Department will not reopen a criminal case on Powell

Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Friday that the Justice Department is not reopening a criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell over cost overruns on the central bank's headquarters renovation. A department spokesperson confirmed the position the same day. Blanche left a narrower door open. If a fresh look at oversight produced evidence of a crime, he said, the department could still investigate.

The distinction he drew is the useful part of the announcement. Speaking to Bloomberg, which first reported the decision, Blanche said Powell "did not act appropriately as far as oversight," and then separated that judgment from a charge. "Making mistakes and not having any sort of oversight over the folks doing billion-dollar projects isn't necessarily a crime." The Financial Times recorded the project he was talking about at $2.5 billion. He also said, in the Bloomberg interview, "We're not reopening a criminal investigation into him."

The trigger was the Fed inspector general's report on Wednesday, 30 September. The watchdog found no ground for a criminal referral and no evidence of administrative misconduct tied to the overruns. It did find lax oversight. President Donald Trump read that second finding as a reason to call again for Powell's resignation, and he asked Blanche to review the report and decide what to do. Friday's answer is that the criminal file stays closed, and that a management review is not the same thing as a prosecution.

Powell is no longer chair. He stepped down from that job in May 2026 and stayed on the Board as a governor. At his last press conference as chair, in April, he said he would not leave the Board "until this investigation is well and truly over, with transparency and finality." Friday does not give him that finality in the form he asked for. Blanche has not ruled out further looking at oversight. He has ruled out, for now, a reopened criminal case. A governor who tied his departure to the end of an investigation now has a public statement that the criminal part is not being restarted, and a caveat that evidence could change that.

The renovation itself is the Eccles building project on Constitution Avenue, the Board's headquarters since 1937, plus the related work that pushed the bill far past early estimates. Axios reported that the inspector general faulted management of a project whose costs more than doubled. The political fight has never really been about marble. It has been about whether a cost overrun at the central bank can be turned into a criminal case against a chair who resisted pressure on rates. Friday's statement says the department, under an attorney general appointed by the president who wanted the case, does not currently see a crime.

That is a narrower holding than it sounds. Blanche did not defend the project. He said the oversight was not appropriate. He said a billion-dollar mistake is not automatically a charge. He kept the option of a later investigation if evidence appears. A spokesperson's confirmation that the department is not reopening the probe is the operational fact. The quote is the reasoning. Together they close the path Trump asked to be reviewed, without closing the subject.

Powell's remaining leverage is the Board seat, not the chair. Governors serve fixed terms. A resignation call from the White House does not remove one. A criminal case could have. The inspector general declined to make a referral. The attorney general declined to reopen one. The oversight criticism stands in both documents. For the Board, the practical result is that its former chair stays a governor with the criminal question parked, and with the renovation still the exhibit in a political argument about who watches the central bank.

The next document, if there is one, would be a new review of oversight rather than a revived criminal file. Blanche said that review could lead back to the department if it found evidence. Until it does, the Friday position is the one on the record. The case is not being reopened. The criticism of oversight is.