Warsh confirmation set to advance as GOP holdout backs vote

Caitlin Reilly and Steven T. Dennis, Bloomberg News on Apr 26, 2026

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Senator Thom Tillis said he’s dropping his blockade of Kevin Warsh’s nomination to head the Federal Reserve, saying the Justice Department’s decision to end a criminal probe targeting Fed Chair Jerome Powell removed a threat to the central bank’s independence.

The North Carolina Republican’s decision sets the stage for Warsh’s swift confirmation to succeed Powell, whose term ends on May 15.

Tillis said he received assurances from the Justice Department that the criminal case against Powell and the Fed was “completely and fully settled” while the Fed’s inspector general pursues a separate probe into cost overruns in the central bank building’s renovation.

“With these assurances, I look forward to supporting Kevin Warsh’s confirmation,” Tillis said Sunday in a statement. “He is an outstanding nominee, and it is time for the Federal Reserve to move beyond this distraction and return its full attention to its mission.”

Warsh, who appeared before the Senate Banking Committee in a confirmation hearing last week, has broad support from GOP lawmakers. The panel, which includes Tillis as a member, has scheduled a vote on Warsh’s nomination for April 29.

Based on his conversations with the DOJ, Tillis told NBC’s "Meet the Press" he’s “prepared to move on with the confirmation of Mr. Warsh.”

Holding the pivotal vote on the Senate panel with jurisdiction over the Fed, Tillis had pledged to block Warsh’s confirmation as long as Powell was under investigation by federal prosecutors, calling the criminal probe an attack on the central bank’s independence.

“That was my problem to begin with, because I feel like there were prosecutors in D.C. that thought this was going to be a lever to have Mr. Powell leave early,” Tillis told NBC. Over the weekend, he got assurances from the Justice Department “that I needed to feel like they were not using the DOJ as a weapon to threaten the independence of the Fed,” he said.

“So this will allow Mr. Warsh to move on with his confirmation on time,” Tillis added.

The Fed’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is “one of of the most respected inspectors general in Washington or in the whole of government,” Tillis said, adding that he believes the IG’s inquiry will conclude there was no wrongdoing in the renovation project.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, served subpoenas on the central bank in January as part of a criminal investigation into cost overruns in a building renovation at the Fed and congressional testimony that Powell provided on the matter.

Her criminal probe followed months of attacks on the Fed chair by President Donald Trump, who complained Powell wasn’t lowering interest rates fast enough. The Fed’s Office of the Inspector General opened its review of the renovation of the central bank’s headquarters last year at Powell’s request.

Pirro said in a social media post Friday she would drop the investigation as the Fed’s inspector general examines the renovation costs, though she said “I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.”

While Powell’s term as Fed chair ends on May 15, his seat on the Board of Governors doesn’t expire until 2028 — and the Justice Department’s partial reversal won’t secure his departure from the board.

Trump briefly commented on Warsh’s path ahead when asked by reporters Saturday, saying “I would imagine it’s smooth” now that Pirro has dropped the criminal investigation. But he declined to give an all-clear for Powell, citing the Fed inspector general’s inquiry and saying “I have an obligation to find out” what’s behind the cost overrun.

The lingering uncertainty suggests continued pressure from the Trump administration that could motivate Powell to stay at the Fed even if Warsh is confirmed by the Senate.

Warsh, 56, served as a Fed governor between 2006 and 2011 and has been critical of the institution since leaving it. At his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, he called for a “regime change” in the way the Fed conducts policy.

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