U.S. Federal Reserve Jerome Powell alleged on Sunday evening that a Department of Justice probe into the central bank’s recent renovation project was politically motivated, as the Donald Trump administration continued its calls for lower interest rates. Powell said the DOJ had last week served the Fed with grand jury subopenas and was threatening a criminal indictment related to his June 2025 testimony before Congress regarding the renovation project. "This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings... those are pretexts" Powell said in a statement published on the Fed’s website. The Fed cut interest rates by a cumulative 75 basis points in 2025, much smaller than the over 2% cuts demanded by Trump. Powell cited caution over inflation and the impact of Trump’s policies as reasons for the smaller cuts. The president’s repeated badgering of the Fed sparked heightened concerns over the central bank’s independence from the government. The central bank is traditionally expected to set monetary policy without any direct interference from the White House.