NextFin News - A federal judge in Washington on Thursday refused to erase earlier rulings against U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro in the now-closed federal investigation into former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied Pirro’s motion to vacate his prior orders, according to CNBC, saying the request came only after the investigation had ended.
Boasberg’s earlier decision said prosecutors generally need only minimal suspicion to seek grand jury subpoenas. But he also found that evidence the subpoenas may be part of a campaign of political harassment can raise the bar for allowing an investigation to proceed. Pirro’s office asked the court to wipe those losses from the books after agreeing in April to close the Powell investigation, and Boasberg said the request came after an office that had initially signaled it would appeal took what he described as a different course.
His order used a notably sharp tone. Boasberg said Pirro’s litigation posture had “vacillated” and called the request to vacate a “curious” strategy, language that pointed to skepticism extending beyond the narrow facts of the Powell case.
Pirro, who was appointed U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia earlier this year and has spent much of her public career as an aggressive and highly partisan legal figure, is now left with an adverse order that remains on the books even though the target of the investigation is no longer under threat. In Washington, rulings often outlast the political fights that produced them, and they can influence how future prosecutors handle similar tactics. Boasberg’s refusal to clear the record means the court’s criticism of the legal basis for the probe remains available for future cases.
The events leading to the ruling were politically charged. Pirro agreed in April to shut down the Powell probe after Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina dropped a Senate blockade of Kevin Warsh’s confirmation as President Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed Powell as Federal Reserve chair. Warsh was confirmed in May and is set to chair his first meeting of the central bank’s rate-setting committee next week. Powell stepped down as chair as required by law, but kept his separate seat on the Fed’s board, saying he wanted to make sure the legal threat to the central bank had truly ended even after Pirro said the investigation was over.
That context was central to Boasberg’s reasoning. The Powell investigation touched criminal procedure, presidential politics and the Federal Reserve’s institutional independence. By refusing to vacate his earlier rulings, Boasberg left in place a warning that prosecutorial power has limits when the evidence suggests a campaign of harassment. For Pirro, the practical effect is limited because the investigation is closed. The reputational effect is harder to shake: the record still shows that her office lost on the merits and then tried to remove those losses after the dispute became moot.
Trump has installed Warsh, a former Fed governor and long-time monetary hawk, at the helm, while Powell’s exit from the chair has not fully removed the legal and political shadow over the central bank. Boasberg’s order leaves intact the earlier finding and the rebuke of the office’s handling of a case that had already reached into the Fed’s leadership transition.
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