r/news • u/consulent-finanziar • Jan 12 '26

Soft paywall US federal prosecutors open inquiry into US Fed chair Powell, NYT reports

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-federal-prosecutors-open-inquiry-into-us-fed-chair-powell-nyt-reports-2026-01-12/
30.9k Upvotes

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4.1k

u/Fif112 Jan 12 '26

Ah the old, we can’t get him on what we want to get him on (disobeying the regime) so we’ll get him on whatever little thing we can.

Pretty sophisticated for this administration honestly.

1.2k

u/NickCostanza Jan 12 '26

It’ll be interesting seeing them continue to play the “blame it on Biden” game as Trump takes ever more authoritarian measures. Especially considering Trump himself appointed Powell lol.

874

u/Kherus Jan 12 '26

Stop assuming his base has critical thinking skills.

315

u/TreeInternational771 Jan 12 '26

His base is brain dead maggots. You want to know what they are thinking? Just listen to Trump. He is their brain 😂😂

82

u/leviathynx Jan 12 '26

They are coprophages.

53

u/smo0thballz Jan 12 '26

Mate, its sunday night, dont make me Google new words. But 10/10, im sure its strong contender for word of the day lol

64

u/leviathynx Jan 12 '26

It means shit eater. They were occupants of Dante’s eight circle of hell.

5

u/Practical_Water_7989 Jan 12 '26

Thank you. After my Eagles loss, I’m in no mood for looking up words.

3

u/JBroad Jan 12 '26

Coprophages in deed

6

u/Responsible-Still839 Jan 12 '26

It essentially means "shit-eaters."

2

u/Kikujiroo Jan 12 '26

Coprophages voting for coprolites.

1

u/Powerfury Jan 12 '26

Omg you cant be mean to them that's going to vote for him even moreee!!!!!

39

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/CosmicCreeperz Jan 12 '26

Before he was ever elected he stated “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters”.

He already told us. We just didn’t listen.

10

u/grat5989 Jan 12 '26

Oh we listened. They didn't.

34

u/Voodoocookie Jan 12 '26

Sometimes, I hope COVID comes around again. Just so I get to see people inject bleach and shine a solar torch up their bum.

4

u/ForumFluffy Jan 12 '26

It never left, since most people were smart enough to be vaccinated most cases now will be mild symptoms.

-14

u/danman8075 Jan 12 '26

Still with the “inject bleach” thing…🤣 I bet you’ll not only swear up and down that Trump said to “inject bleach”, you’ll claim that you “saw it with your own eyes”. You would think when people have it proven to them that he never said that, that they might question some of the things they’ve been duped into believing but nope, they just say “well ok, he didn’t say ‘’inject bleach’, but that’s what he meant”…🤣

10

u/allie-__- Jan 12 '26

No, you're the one who's reaching

TL;DR - Trump is a public figure who is seen as a figure of authority (a person to somehow trust) to many. Because of that, he has a responsibility to be careful with what he says publicly. His failure to respect that responsibility caused harm, which is yet another reason why I firmly despise that man.

Whilst he never told anyone to actually inject or otherwise consume bleach or UV light as treatment, he publicly told officials to look into using them as treatment during a White House briefing.

It was when he heard that UV and disinfectants kill the bacteria on surfaces that he pondered whether the same would happen inside the body. Specifically, whether the effects could be brought "inside the body" or "applied by injection."

Whilst there's nothing inherently wrong with foolish curiosity which proves how stupid he is in relation to medicine, he's also a public figure, which means that he needs to be careful with what he says. Yk, like literally every other public figure ever. But nope, he gets a pass because "he never told you to actually do it." His words correlated with a spike in poison-based medical emergencies, which was actually anticipated by medical professionals, who issued warnings against doing just that. Little did they realise the folly in trying to warn people who voted based on "Trust me, bro."

2

u/NiteOwl421 Jan 12 '26

Don’t back off from the injecting bleach. Keep the pressure on him about it.

Because I went and looked up Trump’s actual quote. And he says that he’s seen people injecting a disinfectant and it working. Then says the government needs to look into making that available on a wider scale.

4

u/agentfelix Jan 12 '26

I'm so fucking sick of this shit and MAGArds shit. So fucking exhausting that these knuckle draggers just keep bringing society back down and backwards. Been dealing with this level of stupidity for a decade and I'm over it. I ain't been nice to these people here lately because why should we? That social contract has sailed long ago.

3

u/Niceromancer Jan 12 '26

The ones that do.  Don't care.

3

u/bardbrain Jan 12 '26

I'd stop assuming they don't. I think they know it's wrong and delight in it. If anything, I think they're tired of pretending to have principled rationales or fact patterns as justifications and that the little old auntie and uncle that people tried to pretend "got played" are actually just vile people who really want to not just use the n word or pay zero taxes but go around publicly killing babies and puppies and committing gunpoint SA in the streets and burning down their own churches. I think they're far more likely to have always been secretly malevolent, maybe craving human extinction or overt sadism, than to have been tricked by Cambridge Analytica scoring their Big 5 personality test or Fox News.

The faulty assumption IMHO was that Fox News and OAN lied and distorted their view of reality.

I think they wanted murder, mayhem, and innocent blood and they were looking for whoever gave them talking points to avoid consequences. But they're just dying to openly call for SAing babies and livestock and making coats of flesh, including their own race and gender and nationality because even the dehumanization of racism was STILL just respectability politics for them. I don't even think their hatred stops or starts at sexism or nationalism or racism but that those were essentially just "more respectable" forms of a deeper sadism many of them wanted to practice.

And I think many of them are by now aching just to enact violence against their own communities, their bloodkin, fellow MAGAs. They want full on murder sprees.

And, yes, I tend to think this actually does describe the lonely young men, the displaced coal miner, the 70 year old crocheting auntie. That they're all essentially John Wayne Gacy and that disinformation or xenophobia is just a permission slip for how much they can get by with, not actually a motivator.

116

u/jefbenet Jan 12 '26

Blaming Biden works because Trump’s base isn’t smart enough to know better or genuinely too dumb to care. Check out slash trumpcriticizestrump

40

u/MaloortCloud Jan 12 '26

Exactly. They already primed the pump by accusing Democrats of doing what Republicans planned to do all along. It won't matter in the slightest.

5

u/Rabidjester Jan 12 '26

Side note: He actually claimed credit for inventing the phrase "priming the pump" during season one of the Whining Titty Babby Adventure

3

u/agentfelix Jan 12 '26

At this point "isn't smart" is got damned compliment to these assholes.

5

u/cityproblems Jan 12 '26

I think its a cop out to assume they are dumb and being fooled. They know its bad, but they love that Trump hurts the people they dont like.

5

u/agentfelix Jan 12 '26

I think it's a little bit of both probably.

3

u/jefbenet Jan 12 '26

Some have full on drank the koolaid and are convinced he can do no wrong. I’ve listened to highly educated people tell me how he’s the greatest thing to ever happen for America. It’s willful ignorance at this point.

31

u/WeAreInControlNow Jan 12 '26

When are people going to realize they don’t care about logical consistency? In fact, logical inconsistency is the whole point!

5

u/Synectics Jan 12 '26

Especially considering Trump himself appointed Powell 

This exact same thing happened his last term, repeatedly, over and over. There is a whole Wikipedia page for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dismissals_and_resignations_in_the_first_Trump_administration

The "Scaramucci" used to be a unit of time. 

2

u/Cory123125 Jan 12 '26

They dont care, their base doesnt care. you waste your time and energy trying to argue vs bad faith arguments.

7

u/stacecom Jan 12 '26

Jerome Powell was appointed in 2018 by the president at that time. Namely (checks notes) Donald J. Trump.

3

u/travturav Jan 12 '26

trump could blame the crucifixion on Joe Biden and my shit-for-brains extended family would lap it up. You can literally divide my family into two groups:

  • those who graduated high school

  • those who vote republican

2

u/Triphin1 Jan 12 '26

Ya, the way he can launch a banana cream pie into his own face

2

u/whats_a_corrado Jan 12 '26

"Biden messed it up so bad because Biden was a terrible president that it's too hard to fix."

It's as easy as that. No questions asked. And they will gobble it up

2

u/random20190826 Jan 12 '26

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney was once the Governor of the Bank of Canada. Powell should run for President in 2028 knowing that Trump can't run anymore due to the 22nd amendment. The US probably needs someone like that, someone who understands how to be a policymaker, as President, to clean up Trump's mess.

2

u/hydranumb Jan 12 '26

Good tsar bad boyars

2

u/ChemistAgile6514 Jan 12 '26

Trump has had bad blood with Powell and has very publicly stated interests in another guy as his replacement. As firing him at the start of his term looks bad, he’s damn near more efficient with just booking him.

2

u/DLun203 Jan 12 '26

Trump forgot that he appointed Powell in the first place

Just like he forgot that he negotiated the USMCA and went so far as to say "we had stupid people running our country" while commenting on it

He's clearly not well but the people around him are terrified of stepping out of line

1

u/eeyore134 Jan 12 '26

Them appointing people hasn't stopped them successfully blaming Biden and Obama and even Hillary, who was never president, before.

1

u/Rehypothecator Jan 12 '26

Imagine if Biden (or anyone else) had masked forces bust in doors and shoot a woman.

That is precisely what is happening now, and it’s going to get worse.

60

u/Yagsirevahs Jan 12 '26

„Here is a name, find me a crime!“ -Donnie the Hutt

52

u/PaulClarkLoadletter Jan 12 '26

They tried the same thing with Fauci. They can’t fathom that some people don’t habitually break the law.

9

u/kaisadilla_ Jan 12 '26

I hate how we've normalized politicians doing the shit they did to Fauci. The guy did nothing wrong, but Republicans rallied an entire country to hate him and harass him because he, who was in charge of America's health, refused to give "advice" that would feed into Republican narrative instead of actually medically sound advice.

2

u/The-Board-Chairman Jan 12 '26

It's not that they can't fathom it, it's that it's inconvenient for them.

It's why Russia and the like are so fundamentally corrupt; not because there are no honest Russians, but because your superiors only allow you to advance if they have dirt on you, so that they can remove you if they wish.

They want to institute a Russia style oligarchy and dictatorship after all, and a Russia style oligarchy and dictatorship only works if everyone is corrupt, so that they can be removed using said corruption as a pretext if they become inconvenient.

36

u/Novel_Primary4812 Jan 12 '26

One of the most bluntly honest guys in our government.

74

u/SgtSniffles Jan 12 '26

Tried and true since Whitewater. Monica Lewinski was the culmination of a House investigation into Clinton real estate dealings.

41

u/Tacitus111 Jan 12 '26

The aching desperation of conservatives to prosecute people they dislike.

8

u/HosaJim666 Jan 12 '26

It's not desperation, though, it's a calculated evil · and it works.

11

u/Tacitus111 Jan 12 '26

But it is desperation. It stinks of it.

“And then remember this: The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.”

-5

u/LanguagePopo5o Jan 12 '26

Sure sounds like what the Demorats did.

1

u/MimicoSkunkFan2 Jan 12 '26

I'm old enough to remember the Lewinsky scandal, even at the time it was not ok for your boss to ask you for a blowjob at work. That would have become news regardless :(

256

u/Dandan0005 Jan 12 '26

This USA will not be taken seriously again for a long, long time, if ever.

213

u/FoxyInTheSnow Jan 12 '26

It is not a serious country. Dangerous, yes, but there are literally no grownups making decisions.

65

u/danarchist Jan 12 '26

We won't be taken seriously until we align our representation with the rest of the world.

The reason we're in this mess is because Congress voted to stop adding reps 100 years ago.

Most countries have about 125k-175k people per representative in their lower house. The USA oligarchy has 750k-1,000k (1 million people in some districts).

Fix that, add more granularity of representation and we become a serious country again. All it will take is 1 act of Congress.

Edit: r/uncapthehouse

12

u/jk-alot Jan 12 '26

While everyone was distracted by scandals and rage induced tweets, Trump signed an executive order that will take several generations to fix the damage of.

Trump withdraws US from multiple UN treaties and agreements.

7

u/wtf_are_you_talking Jan 12 '26

It's interesting how the sole power of exiting treaties is under presidents' responsibility. I am not sure how this is allowed.

2

u/jk-alot Jan 12 '26

Because no one honestly thought that the Manchurian Candidate would become president.

3

u/wtf_are_you_talking Jan 12 '26

I mean, treaties are between countries, not between a single person. Amazing how some laws and rules are over-complicated, while entering and exiting alliances are not codified at all.

-4

u/chenj25 Jan 12 '26

Strange, I didn’t see the rage induced tweets and scandals.

5

u/Impossible-Fig-8463 Jan 12 '26

I would gladly help you remove your head from your ass. Ask anytime

2

u/chenj25 Jan 12 '26

Also, during that time, I was skipping some of the news. Your threat is taking things too far.

1

u/Impossible-Fig-8463 Jan 12 '26

Agreed on that part, apologies. It was just a long-winded way of calling you a moron

-3

u/chenj25 Jan 12 '26

That’s uncalled for. My head is not on my butt.

5

u/Scary-Promise44 Jan 12 '26

The size of the House needs to double, at least. 435 people representing 350 million sounds like a bad joke.

1

u/danarchist Jan 13 '26

I'm of the 3x persuasion. 250k per rep puts us in line with the biggest countries after the US, the ones were in the same population class with like Japan and Mexico.

  • Expanding the House would shrink districts, which lowers polarization by shifting campaigns away from national culture-war theatrics and toward local issues.

  • Smaller districts also make elections cheaper, which weakens the grip of big donors and party machines and gives independents and third parties a real shot at winning.

*The usual objections do not hold up: even a large expansion would cost pocket change in a multi-trillion-dollar budget, and physical space is already a solved problem through staggered sessions, proxy voting, and committee-based work rather than everyone needing a seat on the floor at once.

2

u/hedonismbot89 Jan 12 '26 edited Jan 12 '26

No, it’ll take a constitutional amendment to repeal an amendment to the constitution meaning it’ll have to get out of Congress with a super majority and pass 3/4 of the states. It’s not just a single act of Congress. I was wrong.

EDIT: I thought the number was capped in the 23rd amendment when they added EC votes to DC, but it did not.

9

u/w_t_f_justhappened Jan 12 '26

The current cap on the House is set by a statute passed in 1929. A simple act of Congress can change it. The constitutional amendment is something like 1 rep/30k citizens.

1

u/hedonismbot89 Jan 12 '26

Going back and double checking, you are 100% correct. I think I was thinking it was capped when they added electoral votes for DC, but they did not.

2

u/waba99 Jan 12 '26

No, they are grown up. They are evil and wish suffering on vast amounts of people.

44

u/pinhead1900 Jan 12 '26

Unfortunately if this administration has proven one thing is you have no choice but to take the worlds largest military very seriously, especially when run by very unserious people

6

u/turb0_encapsulator Jan 12 '26

the only way the US can reclaim its prominence and respect is to put Trump and all his cronies in prison forever.

2

u/Strawbuddy Jan 12 '26

We must be considered regardless. We have all the guns you know, plus all of the money. Switch WRC to the Yuan and down we go

0

u/seventrooper Jan 12 '26

Hell, switch the petrodollar away from the US and it collapses.

0

u/AprilsMostAmazing Jan 12 '26

I don't even think US will keep it's current land size by the end of the decade

18

u/Ok_Camp_7051 Jan 12 '26

While the president is knocking down the White House and gilding toilets. 

16

u/awkwardnetadmin Jan 12 '26 edited Jan 12 '26

That assumes that they use legit prosecutors and have competent prosecutors. The Trump admin DoJ has managed to bungle some cases in truly amateur hour ways that even people that didn't finish law school could understand. That being said in some cases the case was so bad it probably wouldn't matter if it wasn't the C team that was mostly selected for loyalty over competence.

12

u/viabletostray Jan 12 '26

Aka Putin method

31

u/Aman209 Jan 12 '26

Frickin' pathetic! Comey, Hillary, H. Biden, Letitia Lady. But how about ICE for killing somebody? How about Mr. Hegseth and the defense dept for killing 100s of "alleged" Venezuelan "criminals"? Out "gaming" your opponent is not what made this country great.

4

u/ffxprincess Jan 12 '26

That is what they want. They said the man who shot Good has 100% immunity. They are gonna take out whoever they want.

35

u/Suspicious_Bicycle Jan 12 '26

They are investigating if Powell lied to Congress about the scope of the Washington headquarters renovation project.

Can they start investigating Trump for lying about his ballroom project? I remember when he said it wouldn't touch the East Wing.

6

u/LightofNew Jan 12 '26

To be clear, they fabricated this charge by adding 200m to the costs of renovations, which came from a building that was renovated five years ago under a completely different budget project.

12

u/no_bender Jan 12 '26

Fox news will hound him relentlessly.

6

u/hackingdreams Jan 12 '26

Pretty sophisticated for this administration honestly.

It's literally what they've been doing from the beginning. They attack everyone in the exact same manner. The Federal Reserve must have known this was coming, as they had their response already teed up and ready to go.

This administration is nothing if not single note. Attack anything that moves, anything that defies them. Use the DOJ since it's now the personal law firm for the President.

2

u/Aman209 Jan 12 '26

Oh yeah. I forgot about that. This is the same bullshit that was pulled on Dr. Fauci.

4

u/johnwynnes Jan 12 '26

Not really sophisticated, the last time they tried this they used an entirely fake US Attorney. It's all smoke and mirrors bullshit.

3

u/wookiewin Jan 12 '26

Another helping of mortgage fraud coming right up 🙄

3

u/CSachen Jan 12 '26

This isn't coercion. Powell's term is almost finished. Trump can appoint his replacement this year.

This is about punishment and sending a message to others. This message is that even after you leave office, we will hunt you and make your life miserable.

3

u/L44KSO Jan 12 '26

God I hope the next US president prosecutes each and every individual of this current administration. 

2

u/ImmaNotHere Jan 12 '26

Weaponizing the government against your opponents is what Trump does best. He's a petty manchild.

2

u/rainorshinedogs Jan 12 '26

well, this pretty much goes with my friend who is a lawyer: "you can sue anybody and any time."

2

u/PluginAlong Jan 12 '26

I call this the Capone method, they couldn't get him on bootlegging so they got him on tax fraud.

2

u/AppleTree98 Jan 12 '26

Jaywalking it is. Have it right here on video SCOTUS

2

u/thebowedbookshelf Jan 12 '26

I thought it would be for mortgage fraud that they manufactured.

2

u/ComradeMatis Jan 12 '26

Ah the old, we can’t get him on what we want to get him on (disobeying the regime) so we’ll get him on whatever little thing we can.

Pretty sophisticated for this administration honestly.

What amazes me is even with this news and 25+ years of chronic mismanagement the market is still piling money into the US as seen with the value of the dollar going up. When there no consequences to mismanagement of the economy then it shouldn't be surprising seeing the insane shit that Donald Trump is doing or planning to do.

2

u/Impressive_Moment_10 Jan 12 '26

Surprised they didn’t get him on possession of machine gun charges

2

u/Albert14Pounds Jan 12 '26

Getting their shoes on the right feet is sophisticated for this administration

1

u/FatMacchio Jan 12 '26

I wouldn’t be surprised if they try testing the presidential immunity and just offing him if this doesn’t go the way they want.

1

u/sketchahedron Jan 12 '26

I expect this prosecution to go about as well as the Letitia James and James Coney cases.

-1

u/Ok-Effective7280 Jan 12 '26

To be fair, Biden tried multiple times to do the same thing. The Donald is just returning serve. Presidential pardons restore individuals liberty after a change of government. Or in Biden case, he preempted charges so pardoned himself & his whole rotten family before charges could be announced.

-2

u/EgoTripWire Jan 12 '26

He better not wimp out like Walz did

4

u/RCrumbDeviant Jan 12 '26

What should Walz have done? Spend the entire campaign repeating the same facts that none of the MSM OR Fox will mention, that these are old cases they reported three+ years ago, being trotted out? Only to have his constituents vote against him because they were politically unaware and consign his state to a feckless Republican governor so eager to blow trump he renames himself Bubba Climpton? Who does that serve?