Fed Chair Front-Runner Hassett Reportedly Says He Respects Central Bank’s Independence After DOJ Launches Criminal Investigation Into Jerome Powell

• The National Economic Council Director stated that the U.S. economy is booming because of President Trump’s policies, rather than the Fed’s monetary policies.
• He added that the Fed has among the highest interest rates in the world currently, while noting that this has President Trump frustrated.
• However, Hassett said this has nothing to do with the DOJ launching a criminal investigation into Powell over the weekend.

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Monday reportedly said that he respects the Federal Reserve’s independence after the U.S. Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

“In the fullness of time, we will find out if this looks like a pretext, but right now we’ve got a building that’s got dramatic cost overruns,” Hassett said during an interview with CNBC, reacting to Powell’s statement that this was to put pressure on the central bank to lower interest rates.

He added that the plans for the building look inconsistent with Powell’s testimony, while holding himself back from giving a definitive opinion about whether the Fed Chair committed perjury.

“I hope everything turns out okay with Jay,” he said.

Hassett is one of the front runners for the Fed Chair position. According to prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket, Hassett is currently in the lead, at 45%, followed by Kevin Warsh at 36%.

Economy Booming Because Of Trump, Says Hassett

Hassett stated that the U.S. economy is booming because of President Trump’s policies, rather than the Fed’s monetary policies.

He added that the Fed has among the highest interest rates in the world currently, while noting that this has President Trump frustrated. However, Hassett said this has nothing to do with the DOJ launching a criminal investigation into Powell over the weekend.

“I think what I’d like to see at the Fed, regardless of who’s Fed Chair, is just a little bit more introspection that we let inflation get out of control. It’d be nice to know how that happened, and nice to know that we have a plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he added.

Here’s What Powell Said

Powell delivered a two-minute-long video statement on Sunday following the probe.

“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President,” he said.

He warned that the outcome of the probe would determine if the central bank would be able to set monetary policy going forward, or if it would instead be directed by political pressure or intimidation.

At the heart of this investigation is a $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed’s Eccles Building. In July 2025, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna announced that she had referred Powell to the DOJ for potential perjury connected to his testimony about the Fed headquarters renovation project.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities declined in Friday morning’s trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was down by 0.1%, the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) fell 0.17%, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) declined 0.4%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘neutral’ territory.

The iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF) was down by 0.17% at the time of writing.

Also See: Why EVTV Stock Doubled Today On This Nvidia GPU Purchase Order

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