Jerome Powell was subpoenaed by the Justice Department.

Posted by Behind the Bastards, Oct 3, 2026Checked Nov 2, 2026

Polygraph verdictTrue

Sources: 5 support
Said: 1 time·
Confidence: 93%

Behind the BastardsOct 3, 2026

The Justice Department did issue grand jury subpoenas in January 2026 tied to Jerome Powell's Senate testimony, as Powell and multiple outlets report.

We could not find who says this in the episode. Shown here; not scored.

What was said

… like, look at all of the shit that Trump was doing, like, just all of the unhinged, weird, golden, like, renovation, quote unquote, stuff that was happening in the White House, and the whole sort of ballroom bullshit. Real sort of classic case of projection. But these, like, very absurd charges led to a fairly serious situation, where you have Jerome Powell getting subpoenaed by the Justice Department, and this is unprecedented, right? And then he ends up, as response, releasing what I can, like, really only describe as, like, a preemptive hostage video, where he's just talking about, like, hey, yeah, I'm, I am, like, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve …

Behind the Bastards · Oct 3, 2026· from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Supports. Powell's own January 11, 2026 Fed statement says the DOJ served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas threatening criminal indictment related to his testimony.[3]

Supports. NBC News describes the subpoenas as ones 'the Justice Department served to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell,' and CBS News says the subpoenas were for chairman Jerome Powell as part of a criminal investigation into him.[4][5]

Supports. AP and Reuters both report that a federal judge quashed or blocked the January subpoenas in March 2026, confirming the subpoenas existed and were issued by DOJ.[1][2]

Context. The subpoenas were issued to the Federal Reserve Board rather than to Powell personally, a technical distinction that the claim's wording glosses over but that does not reverse its core assertion.[1][3]

Sources

5 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 1 primary, 2 tier 2

1Federal judge quashes Justice Department subpoenas to ...apnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports, context
2The Fed's building renovations and Trump's push to oust Powellreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
3Statement from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powellfederalreserve.gov · primary source · cited for: supports, context
4Judge blocks subpoenas against Fed Chair Jerome Powellnbcnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
5Federal Reserve seeking to quash subpoenas in DOJ ...cbsnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports

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Said in 1 published post

Behind the Bastards · Oct 3, 2026Post →

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