WASHINGTON — U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro vowed to continue her investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after a judge rejected subpoenas issued to the central bank, threatening to delay the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as Powell’s successor.

U.S. District Chief Judge James Boasberg said the government had advanced no evidence to justify the subpoenas — related to renovations of the Fed’s headquarters and Powell’s comments about the project — and said they clearly reflected an “improper motive” of retaliating against Powell over policy differences. Pirro, who leads the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, called the ruling wrong and said she would appeal the decision.

“This process has been arbitrarily undermined by an activist judge,” Pirro said in a press conference Friday. “The process should have been allowed to run its course, and it wasn’t. And shame on them.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Fed declined to comment.

Pirro’s decision to appeal could result in at least one significant negative outcome for the White House: It will seriously jeopardize President Donald Trump’s ability to replace the Fed chair he has long criticized when Powell’s term at the helm of the central bank ends in May.

Trump has nominated Warsh, a former Fed governor, for the top job at the Fed, but GOP Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who sits on the committee charged with vetting Fed nominees, has pledged to block Warsh’s confirmation until the probe is resolved. Tillis has said he believes the investigation is politically motivated.

“This ruling confirms just how weak and frivolous the criminal investigation of Chairman Powell is and it is nothing more than a failed attack on Fed independence,” Tillis said Friday in a post on social media. “Appealing the ruling will only delay the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair.”

Together with all of the committee’s Democrats, Tillis — who isn’t running for re-election — has the power to block nominees in the closely divided panel.

Opening for Powell

Pirro’s insistence on pursuing an appeal points to a legal battle that could leave Warsh’s nomination in limbo for months. It may even result in Powell remaining in control of the Fed’s interest-rate setting panel beyond his term as chair of the Board of Governors.

Powell’s seat on the board doesn’t expire until January 2028, and if he elects to remain on as a governor, he would be eligible to continue as head of the Federal Open Market Committee, the panel that sets rates.

“It is growing more likely that Jerome Powell will preside over the March, April and June policy decisions of the Federal Open Market Committee at the very least, if not the remainder of the year,” Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, wrote in a note to clients.

‘Mountain of evidence’

The DOJ issued subpoenas to the Fed in January threatening a criminal indictment, Powell said at the time. The subpoenas are related to the Fed’s ongoing $2.5 billion renovation of its headquarters in Washington and testimony Powell provided about the construction before the Senate Banking Committee last year.

Powell, in an unusually forceful video response to the subpoenas, characterized the investigation as motivated by the Fed refusing to set interest rates according to the preferences of Trump.

“A mountain of evidence suggests that the government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning,” Boasberg said in the opinion, which was dated March 11 and made public March 13. “On the other side of the scale, the government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime; indeed, its justifications are so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual.”

Boasberg, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, also granted the Fed’s request to unseal documents in the case, including the central bank’s motion to quash the subpoenas, the government’s memo in opposition and the Fed’s response to that memo.

Pirro has emerged as an intransigent and, at times, stubborn U.S. attorney who has distanced herself from Justice Department leadership.

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With assistance from María Paula Mijares Torres, Enda Curran, Stefani Reynolds, Steven T. Dennis and Chris Strohm.

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