Fed watchdog finds no laws broken in $2.5 billion Fed renovations Trump has called “disgraceful”

Updated on: September 30, 2026 / 1:14 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — The Federal Reserve's inspector general announced Wednesday that the multibillion-dollar renovations of the Fed's headquarters criticized by President Trump as "disgraceful" did not violate federal law, though the office concluded poor project management dramatically increased the cost.

"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 U.S. Attorney General in accordance with the Inspector General Act," the new 121-page report stated. The IG also did not find fault with features that the White House had complained were "ostentatious" and noncompliant with the approved plans.

Although the report found "deficiencies in the management of the renovation project" that resulted in a series of recommendations from the inspector general, "we did not identify administrative misconduct during our evaluation," wrote Michael Horowitz, the central bank's inspector general.

The report is the culmination of an internal investigation that lasted more than a year, which the IG says came at then-Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's request and began in July 2025.

A separate Justice Department probe was announced in January, when Powell revealed…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/moneywatch/