00:00Now, ABC is reporting this, and we believe they're getting their information from people up on Capitol Hill,
00:04so maybe from Tillis himself.
00:05We know that Jeanine Pirro was meeting with Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general,
00:10and there would be no move to drop the case without the president's permission.
00:16And one had to think, oh, we're getting it.
00:20There's a text coming in, I guess, on X from Jeanine Pirro any minute now.
00:25We can see what she has to say about it.
00:30This is live news, guys.
00:31Yes, this is how it unfolds.
00:32This is live news, and she's saying a comprehensive report in short order.
00:40I'm confident the outcome will assist in resolving once and for all.
00:44They're going to ask the inspector general for the Federal Reserve to scrutinize the building cost overruns,
00:51and she says that I expect a comprehensive report in short order
00:56and am confident the outcome will assist in resolving once and for all the questions that led this office to
01:01issue subpoenas.
01:03Accordingly, I have directed my office to close our investigation as the inspector general undertakes this inquiry.
01:10Note well, however, that I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.
01:16Okay, so that is what we were expecting to happen, and that's the thing that we always said, well, why
01:25didn't the president just do that?
01:27But the idea that she is saying she could restart, that is something that will not sit well with Jay
01:35Powell and with the Fed
01:36because at this point he's got no other leverage, he still would be in theory facing criminal jeopardy if they
01:47decided that there was some fact they wanted to try.
01:50It doesn't change the way I see it.
01:52It doesn't, and I'm not a lawyer, the way I see it, it doesn't change the situation for Powell
01:59because they're still investigating what happened, and there was sort of no grounds that anybody could find for the charges
02:08or for the effort the first time, so they could still make something up out of the inspector general's report
02:16unless the inspector general comes out on the first page and says, you know, there's absolutely nothing wrong.
02:21But I would imagine that investigating a $2.6 billion building project, you'd find something.
02:27So I wonder how the Fed is going to view this.
02:33Well, you wonder how Chairman Powell and his legal advisors will interpret this.
02:37Yeah.
02:39He had said until this investigation is finally brought to a conclusion, and I'm not sure that it is being
02:47brought to a conclusion.
02:48But this is an off-ramp for Jeanine Pirro, right?
02:51It's an off-ramp for the time being.
02:56It may be their peace offering to Tom Tillis to see if he will then let the confirmation go forward.
03:05Yeah.
03:05My question here is, has Tom Tillis ever raised concerns about the Fed renovation expenses?
03:11Is that his concern?
03:13I mean, I know he said he wanted to get this out of the way, but does he have any
03:17doubt or skepticism over what has happened at the Fed?
03:20He doesn't seem to think that there's any problem.
03:23He mentioned that at the confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh.
03:27Seven members of the banking committee came out and said they didn't think there was any particular problem with what
03:34had gone on.
03:34They didn't see any reason that they might end up needing to have a criminal proceeding against Jay Powell.
03:43Is this going to be enough for them?
03:45That's going to be the question.
03:47And you wonder if this is the way we've seen this Justice Department work is to kind of stretch things,
03:54go right up to the line.
03:56And this may be another case of that.
03:58And they may, we'll have to see if the Fed, if it's enough for Powell and the Fed.
04:03Well, perhaps I think the way you phrased that, Michael, maybe the next step might be, is this enough for
04:08Mr. Tillis, for Senator Tillis?
04:09Yeah.
04:10Well, that's the, there's two things here.
04:12One is who's going to be chairman of the Fed and when, which if Tillis is satisfied with this, then
04:18the committee can vote him out, can vote Warsh's nomination out.
04:23And then they have to get it to the floor.
04:25That could be done fairly quickly, although the time is a little tight.
04:30But the idea of whether Powell leaves the Fed or stays on as governor, even if Tillis agrees to let
04:39the vote go forward, that's still going to be an open question.
04:43And if we don't get anything out of the Fed, you know what I'm going to be asking next Wednesday.
04:48So do we expect, I'm not sure, Senator Tillis, should we expect a response from him today?
04:55Does he feel the need to be that quick in his, I guess, observance of this and his comments?
05:01Well, I don't know if we can expect anything.
05:05Part of it would be how much has he been briefed on this?
05:08Okay.
05:09Did the Justice Department talk to him about this already?
05:12And, you know, does he know enough that he could make a decision?
05:15If not, we'll probably hear from him in the next 24 hours or so because everybody's going to be after
05:21him.
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