[新聞] 司法部撤銷對聯準會主席鮑爾的刑事調查，可能為沃許鋪平道路

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原文標題： Justice Department drops criminal probe of Fed chair Powell, likely clearing the way for Warsh 司法部撤銷對聯準會主席鮑爾的刑事調查，可能為沃許鋪平道路原文連結： https://tinyurl.com/2bxpa5bl 發布時間： Updated 12:30 AM GMT+8, April 25, 2026 記者署名： By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and ERIC TUCKER 原文內容： WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has ended its investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, clearing a major roadblock to the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as his successor. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannine Pirro said on X on Friday that her office was ending its probe into the Fed’s extensive building renovations because the Fed’s inspector general would scrutinize them instead . The move could lead to a swift confirmation vote by the Senate for Warsh, a former top Fed official whom President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated in January to replace Powell. Powell’s term as chair ends May 15. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, had said he would oppose Warsh until the investigation was resolved, effectively blocking his confirmation. Republicans praised Warsh during a Tuesday hearing even as Democrats questioned his independence from Trump, the lack of transparency around some of his financial holdings, and what they said was his flip-flopping on interest rates. Still, Trump’s previous appointment to the Fed’s board of governors, Stephen Miran, was approved by the full Senate just 13 days after his nomination. Investigation lacked evidence, a court says The probe was among several undertaken by the Justice Department into Trump’s perceived adversaries. For months it had failed to gain traction as prosecutors struggled to articulate a basis to suspect criminal conduct. Other efforts by the department to prosecute Trump’s adversaries, including New York state Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, and former FBI Director James Comey, have also been unsuccessful. A prosecutor handling the Powell case conceded at a closed-door court hearing in March that the government hadn’t found any evidence of a crime, and a judge subsequently quashed subpoenas issued to the Federal Reserve. The judge, James Boasberg, said prosecutors had produced “essentially zero evidence” to suspect Powell of a crime. Boasberg branded prosecutors’ justification for the subpoenas as “thin and unsubstantiated.” The investigation was the most brazen attempt yet by the Trump administration to pressure the Fed to cut its short-term interest rate, which indirectly affects other borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and business loans. Trump has obsessively attacked Powell for not cutting the rate from its current level of about 3.6% to 1%, a level that no Fed official supports. Probe was intended to intimidate the Fed, Powell says Instead, Fed policymakers, including Powell, have said they want to keep rates unchanged while they evaluate the impact of the Iran war, which has sent gas prices soaring, pushing up inflation. The increase could be a one-time shift but could also lead to more sustained inflation. The Fed seeks to restrain rising prices by keeping interest rates high, cooling borrowing and spending. Powell said in January that the investigation was not really about the renovation or his testimony but “is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.” More recently, prosecutors made an unannounced visit to a construction site at the Fed’s headquarters but were turned away, drawing a rebuke from a defense attorney in the case who called the maneuver “not appropriate.” Warsh has promised to be independent Warsh said during a hearing by the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday that he never promised the White House that he would cut interest rates, even as the president renewed his calls for the central bank to do so. “The president never once asked me to commit to any particular interest rate decision, period,” Kevin Warsh, a former top Fed official, said under questioning by the Senate Banking Committee. “Nor would I ever agree to do so if he had. ... I will be an independent actor if confirmed as chair of the Federal Reserve.” Warsh’s comments came just hours after Trump, in an interview on CNBC, was asked if he would be disappointed if Warsh didn’t immediately cut rates and responded, “I would.” Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said during the hearing that Warsh would be a “sock puppet” for Trump. When she asked if Trump had won the 2020 presidential election — which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden but incorrectly claims was decided by fraud — Warsh said only that the Senate had certified Biden as the winner. When asked for an example of an economic policy on which he disagreed with Trump, Warsh did not name one. The decision to abandon the Powell investigation represents a rare pullback for a Justice Department that over the last year has moved aggressively, albeit unsuccessfully, to prosecute public figures the president does not like . Robert Hur, an attorney for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, didn’t immediately respond Friday to an email seeking comment. Trump sought more control over the Fed Trump has taken other unprecedented steps to try to pressure the Fed, including an attempt last August to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Fed’s governing board, who was appointed by Biden. Yet courts have temporarily blocked the firing, and, at an oral argument in January, the Supreme Court appeared sympathetic to the argument that Cook should keep her job. A key question still to be resolved is whether Powell will remain on the Fed’ s board even after his term as chair expires next month. Powell, who serves a separate term as a governor that lasts until January 2028, has said he wouldn ’t leave until the investigation was dropped. Yet he did not promise to do so if it was. By remaining on the board, Powell would deprive Trump of the opportunity to fill another seat among its seven members, three of whom are Trump appointees. Other presidents have pressured the Fed to keep borrowing costs low, notably Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, though rarely as publicly as Trump. Johnson’s and Nixon’s demands for lower rates, however, are considered key contributors to the 15-year outbreak of high inflation that only ended in the early 1980s after then-chair Paul Volcker ratcheted the Fed ’s rate to an eye-watering 20%. Gemini機翻：華盛頓（美聯社）——司法部已結束對聯準會（Federal Reserve）主席傑若米·鮑爾（ Jerome Powell）的調查，清除了凱文·沃許（Kevin Warsh）接任其繼任者審核過程中的一大障礙。哥倫比亞特區聯邦檢察官珍妮·皮羅（Jeannine Pirro）週五在 X 上表示，她的辦公室將結束對聯準會大規模建築翻修案的調查，因為聯準會監察長將改為對此進行審查。此舉可能會促使參議院對沃許進行快速確認投票。沃許曾任聯準會高層官員，由共和黨籍總統唐納·川普（Donald Trump）於一月提名接替鮑爾。鮑爾的主席任期將於 5 月 15 日結束。北卡羅來納州共和黨籍參議員湯姆·提力斯（Thom Tillis）曾表示，在調查解決之前他將反對沃許，這實際上封鎖了他的提名確認。共和黨人在週二的聽證會上對沃許表示讚賞，儘管民主黨人質疑他對川普的獨立性、部分財務持股缺乏透明度，以及他們所稱的在利率立場上的反覆。儘管如此，川普先前任命的聯準會理事史蒂芬·米蘭（Stephen Miran），在獲得提名後僅 13 天就獲得了參議院全體表決通過。法院表示調查缺乏證據這項調查是司法部針對川普眼中敵手所展開的數次行動之一。數月來，由於檢察官難以說明懷疑刑事犯罪的依據，調查一直未能取得進展。司法部起訴川普敵手的其他嘗試，包括針對民主黨籍紐約州檢察總長萊蒂西亞·詹姆斯（Letitia James）和前聯邦調查局（FBI ）局長詹姆斯·柯米（James Comey），也均未成功。處理鮑爾案的一名檢察官在三月的一場閉門法庭聽證會上承認，政府尚未發現任何犯罪證據，隨後法官撤銷了對聯準會發出的傳票。法官詹姆斯·鮑斯伯格（James Boasberg）表示，檢察官提出懷疑鮑爾犯罪的證據「基本上為零」。鮑斯伯格抨擊檢察官申請傳票的理由「單薄且缺乏事實根據」。沃許承諾保持獨立沃許在週二參議院銀行委員會（Senate Banking Committee）的聽證會上表示，儘管總統再次要求中央銀行降息，但他從未向白宮承諾過會降低利率。「總統從未要求我承諾任何特定的利率決策，絕無此事，」凱文·沃許（Kevin Warsh），這位前聯準會高層官員在接受參議院銀行委員會質詢時說道。「如果他真的提過，我也絕不會同意。……若我的聯準會主席提名獲得確認，我將會是一個獨立的行為者。」沃許發表上述評論的幾小時前，川普在接受 CNBC 採訪時，被問到如果沃許沒有立即降息是否會感到失望，川普回答：「我會。」麻薩諸塞州民主黨籍參議員伊莉莎白·華倫（Elizabeth Warren）在聽證會上表示，沃許將成為川普的「魁儡」。當她詢問川普是否贏得了 2020 年總統大選時——川普輸給了民主黨人喬·拜登（Joe Biden），卻錯誤地聲稱選舉結果是由舞弊決定的——沃許僅表示參議院已認證拜登為當選人。當被要求舉出一個他與川普意見分歧的經濟政策案例時，沃許並未點名任何一項。放棄對鮑爾調查的決定，代表了司法部罕見的退讓；在過去一年中，司法部雖一直採取激進行動起訴總統不喜歡的公眾人物，但均未成功。聯準會理事會律師勞勃·赫爾（Robert Hur）週五並未立即回覆尋求評論的電子郵件。川普尋求對聯準會更多的控制權川普還採取了其他前所未有的手段試圖向聯準會施壓，包括去年八月企圖開除由拜登任命的聯準會理事莉莎·庫克（Lisa Cook）。然而，法院已暫時阻止了這項開除令，且在今年一月的言詞辯論（oral argument）中，最高法院似乎對庫克應留任的論點表示同情。目前仍有待解決的一個關鍵問題是，鮑爾在其主席任期於下個月屆滿後，是否會繼續留任聯準會理事。鮑爾的理事任期是獨立計算的，將持續到 2028 年 1 月，他曾表示在調查撤銷前不會離職。然而，即使調查已撤銷，他並未承諾一定會離職。若鮑爾留任理事，將使川普失去填補理事會七名成員中另一個席位的機會，目前這七名成員中有三名是川普任命的。其他總統也曾施壓聯準會以維持低借貸成本，特別是林登·詹森（Lyndon Johnson）和理查·尼克森（Richard Nixon）兩位總統，但很少有人像川普這樣公開。然而，詹森和尼克森對低利率的要求，被認為是導致長達 15 年高通貨膨脹爆發的關鍵因素，這場通膨直到 1980 年代初期，在時任主席保羅·沃克（Paul Volcker）將聯準會利率調升至令人瞠目結舌的 20% 後才告結束。心得/評論：川普對鮑威爾，鮑威爾獲勝，聯準會的獨立性暫時不受威脅。再次上演標準的TACO的交易，美股一直猛漲。值得注意的是Warsh在民主黨執政時主張升息，換川普時就主張降息，一旦降息估計就會繼續噴。 https://tinyurl.com/2cvb6rws -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc), 來自: 194.114.136.222 (日本) ※ 文章網址: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Stock/M.1777050163.A.D95.html