The Department of Justice will not reopen a criminal probe into former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s handling of a costly renovation of the central bank’s headquarters, Attorney General Todd Blanche told Bloomberg on Friday.

“Making mistakes and not having any sort of oversight over the folks doing billion-dollar projects isn’t necessarily a crime, and so I’m not going to talk about a criminal investigation,” Blanche said during a filmed interview. “We closed that criminal investigation, as you know, and we’re not reopening a criminal investigation into him.”

Blanche’s statement follows the release of a comprehensive report by the Fed’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) examining Powell’s oversight of the controversial construction project. The internal watchdog group determined that while there were significant oversight failures and project management deficiencies, it did not rise to the level of criminal misconduct.

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“At no point during our evaluation did we find reasonable grounds to believe that a violation of federal criminal law had occurred requiring a referral to the U.S. Attorney General in accordance with the Inspector General Act,” the report stated.

In January, Powell said during a video address that he and the Fed had been subpoenaed by the DOJ, raising the threat of criminal charges concerning Senate testimony he provided in June 2025 about the ballooning costs of the renovation project.

A federal judge subsequently quashed the subpoenas in a stern ruling that found “abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will.”

Powell’s term as Fed chair ended in May, but he has remained on the Fed’s board, partially due to uncertainty over whether the DOJ would reopen the probe.

The Fed did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

President Donald Trump, who has been harshly critical of Powell’s handling of monetary policy, lashed out on social media following the release of the OIG report Wednesday.

“If he doesn’t resign, he should be sued, at the highest level, by the United States Government, for either corruption or incompetence, both of which are completely unacceptable,” Trump wrote of Powell, noting that he had asked Blanche to “study the report, and make a determination as to what to do.”

The White House had not responded to a request for comment as of publication time.

In a letter to the Fed’s inspector general, dated Tuesday, current Fed Chair Kevin Warsh revealed that he has asked the U.S. General Services Administration to serve as project executive for the ongoing construction project “in the task of finally bringing the renovations to a speedy and successful completion.” 

Warsh also noted that the Federal Reserve will hire an independent auditor to “verify the accuracy and compliance of all awarded costs to date.”

Blanche told Bloomberg that if the audit finds evidence of potential criminal wrongdoing, the DOJ may choose to investigate.

“If they learn anything that rises to any kind of criminal misconduct, you better believe we’re going to investigate that,” he said.