Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced Sunday that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has served the central bank with grand jury subpoenas. The documents, delivered on Friday, are related to Powell’s testimony to the Senate Banking Committee regarding renovations to Fed buildings.

President Donald Trump has threatened litigation against Powell over the planned renovations. Trump called Powell a “fool” and alleged that the fixes will cost $4.1 billion, instead of Powell’s own figure of $2.5 billion.

The president has also exerted unprecedented pressure on the Fed to lower interest rates, going so far as attempting to fire one of its governors, Lisa Cook, who is suing to keep her job. Trump is slated to replace Powell as chair later this year, publicly stating, “anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman.”

Powell characterized the subpoena as part of the president’s pressure campaign:

This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress’s oversight role; the Fed through testimony and other public disclosures made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.

The Trump administration has previously sought indictments against political opponents. The DOJ charged former FBI head James Comey with lying during a 2020 Congressional hearing, and it charged New York Attorney General Leticia James with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. Both sets of charges were dismissed after a federal judge found that the prosecutor behind them was unlawfully appointed. A grand jury also refused to indict James on an additional false statements charge.