Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has warned that a criminal investigation into the central bank's headquarters renovation is a 'pretext' that risks undermining the independence of US monetary policy, escalating a long-running confrontation between the Fed and the White House over interest rates.
In an unusual public intervention late on Sunday, Powell said the probe into the Fed's $2.5 billion (£1.86 billion) refurbishment project in Washington, D.C. was the result of mounting political pressure tied to the central bank's refusal to cut rates further.
