Newsmax guest says the DOJ's investigation into Fed Chairman Jerome Powell “might have completely backfired on Trump”
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From the January 12, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Chris Plante The Right Squad
TIANA LOWE DOESCHER (GUEST): Tonight's red hot video, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell makes an unprecedented statement after the Justice Department initiates an unprecedented criminal investigation into Powell's previous Congressional testimony about the central bank's $2.5 billion dollar renovation of its nearly 90 year-old headquarters.
Although President Trump said that he had no prior knowledge of the DOJ subpoenas, Powell maintains that the probe is purely pretextual, a political punishment designed to force the Fed to slash interest rates in defiance of its legal mandate to balance maximum employment with price stability. Even select Republicans in Congress seem to agree with Powell, with Thom Tillis of the Senate Banking Committee promising to block any of Trump's Fed nominees until this legal matter is resolved.
Mercy, if anything, I think this might have completely backfired on Trump, if only because now it looks like you have, you know, the moderates of the Senate, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis totally dug in there saying, we won't give you any of your confirmations. And Powell, even though he's done his chair in just a few months, he's still technically has a seat until 2028. He might not resign.
MERCEDES SCHLAPP (GUEST): Well, that's right, but that — I think like this legal probe, which I think caught everybody, this investigation, it caught everybody off guard. I think that it's almost putting a pressure point on Powell to resign early, to not have to deal with the headache of going through a criminal investigation.
I think that there needs to be a better, I would say, answer coming from the Department of Justice as why they're pursuing this criminal investigation, because, as I've seen it yet, I think there's going to be more questions than we have answers right now.