Most people will not read the Inspector General Report in full [SEE PDF HERE]. But if you did, you might come to the same conclusion as myself. The entire FED and IG Michael Horowitz should be fired, arrested and prosecuted for corruption at a level that is simply jaw dropping.
The issue is really simple if you cut through the fog of the report. The FED Board awarded a no-bid contract to the contractor, without an agreement on the building renovation project and the construction costs associated with it until President Donald Trump began drawing attention to it. This is gross corruption at a massive scale.
To use the terminology of the report, start with this aspect:
…”the Board selected a different project delivery method, construction manager at risk (CMAR), for the Eccles-1951 renovation project. A well-managed CMAR contract allows a building owner—in this case, the Board—to transfer certain construction risks, including those related to cost and schedule performance, to its construction manager (also known as a construction manager as constructor, or CMc). To effect this risk transfer, a CMAR contract provides for the owner and CMc to agree on a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for the project, usually around the time construction begins or building design is substantially complete. Once the GMP is set, the owner has greater cost certainty and the CMc is incentivized to carefully manage costs. If costs exceed the GMP, the CMc absorbs them with limited exceptions, such as when the GMP may be increased to account for change events like owner directed changes or other adjustments like unforeseen site conditions“… {Source pg, 5}
So, the FED board established, at least with themselves, that they would have an agreement on cost for the project. However, if you go to page 60 of the report you find this:
…” in connection with a multibillion-dollar contract, the Board did not ask its CMc for a construction cost estimate or a GMP until December 2025—about 3.5 years after construction began and after the Board had already awarded more than $2 billion. Specifically, the Board did not take advantage of several key opportunities to request a cost estimate from the CMc”…. (Source pg, 60}
It wasn’t until President Trump drew attention to the FED having spent over $2 billion, that FED Chair Jerome Powell, and the FED board requested the construction manager and construction company to provide a cost estimate. This is unreal, especially considering that IG Michael Horowitz finds no unlawful decision-making in the overall fiasco.
President Trump went to visit the construction site at the central bank in July 2025, when both Trump and Powell donned hardhats to inspect the work. FIVE MONTHS LATER, the FED Board finally asked for a construction cost estimate!
The FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD just gave the construction company an open-ended blank check to spend as much as they wanted of TAXPAYER MONEY, with no limits and no expectations of cost. This, according to IG Horowitz is a little concerning, but entirely not a legal problem.
These are the people supposedly in charge of running monetary policy for The United States of America!
Now, we can understand exactly why IG Michael Horowitz was moved from protecting Washington DC corruption within the Dept of Justice, to protecting Washington DC corruption at the Federal Reserve.
Michael Horowitz is not an Inspector General. He is the corruption manager for the U.S. government!
“The Inspector General’s Report just came out on Jerome “Too Late” Powell’s “renovation” of the Federal Reserve Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The IG’s Report states that there were “deficiencies in the management of the renovation project.” The Building is over budget, at a Record Setting rate and, at a minimum, “Too Late” Powell should be forced to resign from the Board. He can’t manage a Building, and he certainly shouldn’t be allowed to manage his High Interest Rate Policy (only on “TRUMP!”).
I have asked Attorney General Todd Blanche to study the report, and make a determination as to what to do about a relatively small Building Complex that is Hundreds of Millions of Dollars over budget, and is now going to cost, according to the Report, at least 2.5 Billion Dollars, with no end in sight.
The Report states, “We were concerned to find that the Board did not obtain a project cost estimate from the [construction manager] until January 2026, which was 3.5 years after construction began and after the Board had awarded more than $2 billion in construction costs. As of July 2026, more than 4 years after construction began and $2 billion has been awarded for construction, the Board had yet to set a [guaranteed maximum price]” — An absolutely unheard of situation! — “The Board therefore still does not have cost certainty and has not transferred material risk to the [construction manager].”
In actuality, I think that the 2.5 Billion Dollars will be 3.5 Billion Dollars, and maybe 4 Billion Dollars by the time they’re finished, and may never get properly built. Soundproofing, and all other elements of the Building, will be inferior to what was previously there. In particular, the magnificent beauty, sculptured ceilings and walls, and so many other things which made the Federal Reserve Building stand apart, will never be captured again, and are only being replaced by flat, boring, less than midlevel finishes.
I could have done a far better Renovation for 25 Million Dollars, completely maintaining the MAGNIFICENCE of the structure, and had money left over. They completely destroyed the Beauty and Glorious History of the Building.
This is Jerome Powell’s fault, and he should be forced to resign, IMMEDIATELY! If he doesn’t resign, he should be sued, at the highest level, by the United States Government, for either corruption or incompetence, both of which are completely unacceptable…And no, I do not want this Building named after President Donald J. Trump, ME! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”


Isn’t it something that politicians from city level all the way up to congress critters have repeatedly stated for years, “there is no money to cut”. I questioned my city budget manager when they released an 8m budget during covid that was $20,000 more than the previous year. I asked “couldn’t anyone find a measly $21,000 cut so that you could brag that you cut the budget?” He said no. They tried and tried and this was the best they could do. BS
Corrupting is rampant in every Office of the Government because of no oversight or consequences.
THE LACK OF RESPECT FOR TAXPAYERS IS CRIMINAL.
Because nobody is ever held accountable for stealing from taxpayers. Government isn’t the answer, it’s the problem.
The lord sees all of this. They will be judged just like the Pharisees will be judged.
Ron Paul and Ross Perot were right.
AUDIT THE FED already!!$%>^#🐮💩
The IG came after me for a 20 Euro taxi fare in Vienna, let that sink in.
I used to manage high dollar (“Billions of $) for the US Air Force. I noted numerous contracts that were awarded to contractors that “Bribed” Congress Critters. The Fraud was massive. Of course I was told to “not notice” these situations.
As far as my experience over 35 years is the contracting fraud is HUGE and it is tied direct to Congress Critters.
I remember one where Trent Lott, past Senator for Mississippi, had what everyone called the “Mississippi Mafia”. When I tried to stop the fraud I was told to stop bringing it up. That told me the Fraud I was seeing was very likely government wide. This is NO SURPRISE for the FED to do their own Crooked Contract with massive Kickbacks hidden!
Gee, the FRB only mis-managed a couple of billion. Look at the “cost plus” contracts at the Pentagon and elsewhere in the government.
If President Trump had done this, the Dumocrats would be trying to impeach him… Again
The enemedia would assign teams to further investigate and it would be front page news for the next 6 weeks.
Yes, six weeks? I think they would run with it for the next 2 1/2 years to keep him busy for the rest of his term, just like Russiagate. I can see the headlines…
“Trump embezzles $2.5 billion and distributes it throughout his family.”
“The FED Board awarded a no-bid contract to the contractor, without an agreement on the building renovation project and the construction costs associated with it …” This is what is known as a BLANK CHECK. Submit invoices that will automatically be paid with no milestone or audit requirements. I should be surprised, but I’m not.
This is what Powell was trying to hide. Either he knew and received kickbacks or he didn’t know and received kickbacks.
I suspect that they had an agreement:
November 2019
…”The AIA Documents Committee received input from representatives of major CMc firms to update the CMc documents. Substantive changes that were made to the CMc documents include greater flexibility to establish the CMc’s preconstruction phase services, and a provision permitting the parties to agree on startup of some of the work before execution of the guaranteed maximum price (GMP) amendment.”…
https://www.buildingenclosureonline.com/articles/88624-aia-releases-updated-construction-management-contract-documents
The project CMc is a joint venture of Balfour Beatty & Gilbane
https://www.balfourbeatty.com/about-us/leadership/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Allen,_Baron_Allen_of_Kensington
This is how Democrats build things. Nick Shirley did a look at California’s bullet train to nowhere! Almost 15 billion has been spent on very little. There is a company that is getting $175.000 a day to do nothing! No real tracks are built and the estimate of a completion price is about 7 times higher than the estimate in the proposition that Californians voted for in ’08. Completion of the original proposed route? Who knows, a century?
Never vote a Democrat into office!
Call it The Jerome Powell Building.
if they had literally taken $3 billion and set it on fire, at least that would reduce the money supply and inflation would decrease…
So no bid contract, means they gave it to one of their cronies with no oversight of costs. Sounds like money laundering to me…..
But my real question is, why are the US taxpayers paying for building improvements for a private institution????