The Daily Fuckup

A federal judge on March 13, 2026, quashed Justice Department subpoenas issued to the Federal Reserve in the government’s investigation into Chair Jerome Powell. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said the government had produced “essentially zero evidence” to suspect Powell of a crime and said the subpoenas were too thinly supported to stand. He also wrote that the record showed the subpoenas’ dominant purpose was to pressure Powell, not to investigate suspicious facts.

The case centers on Powell’s testimony last year about the Fed’s $2.5 billion building renovation project. The investigation has also become entangled with the broader fight over Powell’s future at the central bank, including the question of whether he will leave the Fed’s board when his term as chair ends in May. Boasberg said he had offered the government a chance to submit additional evidence directly to him, but prosecutors declined to do so under those conditions.

The ruling does not resolve the larger political dispute around the Fed, but it sharply narrows the Justice Department’s effort to use subpoenas in the matter. For now, the court has concluded that the government did not provide a sufficient factual basis for the demands it made and that the subpoenas were not being used for a proper investigative purpose.