January 12 (Xinhua) -- According to US media reports, US President Trump said on the 11th that he knew "nothing" about the investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Powell.
(File photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve Building on July 24, 2025, local time.)According to Newsweek, Trump said in an interview that day, "I know nothing about it, but he's certainly not good at running the Fed, nor is he good at building buildings." The report stated that Trump was referring to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
According to a previous report by The New York Times, U.S. federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, investigating the renovation of the Federal Reserve office building and whether Powell made false statements to Congress regarding the size of the project.
The report, citing informed officials, said the investigation, conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, includes analyzing Powell's public statements and reviewing his spending records. The report noted that this investigation marks "the beginning of a new major legal offensive against Powell."
In a video statement on the 11th, Powell said that the criminal investigation against him by prosecutors was a "pretext" to undermine the Federal Reserve's "independence" in setting interest rates. Powell said, "This is about whether the Federal Reserve can still set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether monetary policy will be influenced by political pressure or coercion."
