Senate Panel Advances Kevin Warsh’s Fed Nomination After DOJ Probe Ends

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee voted along party lines on Wednesday to advance the nomination of Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to chair the Federal Reserve. The committee’s decision puts Warsh on track for full Senate confirmation in the coming weeks.

Warsh was nominated in January, but his confirmation stalled after Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, withheld support. Tillis, the committee’s swing vote, refused to back Warsh as long as federal prosecutors investigated outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Powell, Tillis, and many Democrats argued the investigation was an attempt by the president’s allies to pressure a Fed governor into voting to lower interest rates.

“You have extraordinary credentials. They're impeccable.”
— Senator Thom Tillis, addressing Kevin Warsh at a hearing last week

On Friday, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced the investigation would be dropped. Tillis immediately pledged his support for Warsh’s nomination. However, Pirro warned she “wouldn’t hesitate” to reopen the case, a statement Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted on Wednesday.

“No one is fooled. Trump is still going after control of the Fed, and he is keeping the threat of bogus charges alive until he gets what he wants.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren

Warsh faced scrutiny over his independence from the president during last week’s hearing. In a heated exchange, he declined to name any issue where he disagreed with Trump.

“Mr. Warsh is a Trump sock puppet who is so cowed by the president he could not even say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren

Tillis dismissed Warren’s remarks as political posturing.

“I’ve got confidence that this investigation is over. She is flatly wrong on every point she just tried to make.”
— Senator Thom Tillis

Warren also criticized Warsh’s investment portfolio, valued at over $130 million, and his record as a Fed governor during the Bush and Obama administrations, calling his tenure “catastrophic.”

Warsh’s financial disclosures reveal investments in more than two dozen crypto ventures, including DeFi lender Compound, derivatives platforms dYdX and Lighter, and four blockchains: Solana, Optimism, Blast, and Zero Gravity.

Last week, Warsh emphasized his independence and outlined plans for a policy shift focused on interest rates rather than quantitative easing. Since the Great Recession, the Fed has purchased trillions in Treasury bills to stimulate the economy, a strategy critics blame for fueling inflation.

Warsh, a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, served on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011. His nomination has drawn support from parts of the crypto industry, including Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor.