Recently, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell issued a video statement saying that the U.S. Department of Justice served a grand jury subpoena to the Fed last Friday and threatened to bring criminal charges against him. The subpoena relates to Powell's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June regarding the renovation project of two historic Fed office buildings, a project with a budget of approximately $2.5 billion that had drawn political criticism.

Powell emphasized that this legal threat did not stem from any overhaul or normal congressional review, but rather from his insistence that the Federal Reserve set its interest rate policy independently based on economic data, rather than pandering to presidential political pressure. Powell pointed out that such actions using a case as a pretext could become a greater risk to undermine the Fed's independence.