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In a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent agreed with lawmakers who suggested the Senate Banking Committee could investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, instead of the Justice Department, people in the room told Semafor.
One of the sources, a lawmaker, said they interpreted the exchange as “testing the waters” to see if the arrangement could get Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., to lift his blockade on Fed nominees.
“They’re trying to dangle this in front of Thom to see if he’ll accept it,” the lawmaker said. “Thom, he was poker-face.”
Separately, others said it could be a good compromise: “What the president wants is an investigation,” and hopefully, “the Banking Committee will satisfy that desire for an investigation,” one GOP member of Congress said.
But the first lawmaker was more skeptical: “I would be shocked if Thom accepted.”
Tillis declined to comment.
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President Donald Trump last month tapped former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh to succeed Powell. Tillis has said repeatedly since that he will help advance Warsh’s nomination — but only when DOJ scraps its probe of Powell.
Tillis has “been very clear and very public in his position that without the investigation going away, he’s not voting for anyone” so “the only way for us to get there is to resolve this issue,” the second GOP member of Congress said. “I do think that maybe it lends itself for the committee … to take on the responsibility of investigating what actually happened with the renovation. I think that’s probably better for the committee to do it than the DOJ to do it.”
But the first lawmaker said they doubted Tillis would capitulate. The source pointed to the central bank’s inspector general, who is already conducting his own review, as a more reliable third party.
“Bessent made the point today at the retreat that we want to have these hearings early, so we’ll have the new chair locked and loaded and ready,” the first lawmaker said. “I think if the president wants to do this quickly, he’s going to have to call the US attorney and just tell them to back off.”