Trump renews calls for former Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell’s resignation– www.france24.com

The Federal Reserve‘s Inspector General on Wednesday said it found no grounds for a criminal referral or evidence of administrative misconduct tied to cost overruns in a US central bank renovation project.

However, its conclusion there was lax oversight drew a fresh call from President Donald Trump for former Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell‘s resignation.

The Fed watchdog’s report highlighted extensive problems with project oversight that contributed to a roughly $1 billion cost overrun for the renovation of the central bank‘s two historic buildings on the National Mall in Washington.

Trump had latched onto the cost overrun on the project, which now has a price tag of about $2.4 billion, in his effort to engineer Powell’s ouster and gain influence over the direction of monetary policy. Trump also is trying to sack Fed Governor Lisa Cook over alleged wrongdoing in an unrelated matter.

The IG’s report noted that “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 US attorney general.”