“Trump says he asked Blanche to 'study' Fed watchdog report that cleared Powell”, 30 September 2026 (Photo via The Hill — the original report)
As it ran on the front
Citing decades of precedent that a sitting officeholder cannot direct a super PAC's spending, the watchdog called his control of that money "a clear-cut violation of campaign finance law."
Five days later, on September 30, the Fed's own inspector general closed a different file: the $2.5 billion renovation of the central bank's headquarters, the cost overrun Trump cited all summer as grounds to remove Chair Jerome Powell. The inspector general found no criminal wrongdoing. Powell's ledger came back clean too.…
…(cont) The same day, FCC Chair Brendan Carr was asked about the taxpayer-funded ad campaign promoting Trump's agenda. Carr called it "normal" and said it raised no "red flag." Two reviews closed within hours of each other, both reaching the same conclusion: nothing here.
On Wednesday, a third entry moved, the only one with a signature on it. Trump wrote that he had asked Attorney General Todd Blanche to "study" the inspector general's report, the one that cleared Powell, and "make a determination" about it. The report that found no crime is getting a second look from the Justice Department anyway. The report that found a clear-cut violation is not getting one.
Here is the reconciliation, hon. Two clean bills closed within five days of each other: the Fed's, on Powell, and the FCC's, on Trump's own ads. Only one of those clean bills gets reopened. The finding that cleared the man Trump wanted out goes back for restudy. The finding that named his own war chest a violation stays exactly where it landed, unreferred.
The gap is not in the paperwork. The inspector general's math is public; so is the Campaign Legal Center's. The gap is in which clean bill gets accepted on first read and which clean bill gets sent back for a second one, and whose name sits at the top of each file. Powell's clearance gets study. Trump's clearance gets "normal." The ledger does not balance by accident. It balances toward the column that already carries the president's name, and it moves against the one his position cannot survive.
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“They clear his own ad campaign and call it normal; they clear Powell and call it something that still needs a second opinion from the guy's own Attorney General. That's the whole racket, folks — the referee works for one team. Nothing happens to the $400 million war chest a separate watchdog already flagged as a clear-cut violation, but a clean bill on Powell gets sent back for restudy anyway.”
“Look, the president has every right to ask his own Attorney General to take a second look at a government report — that's just diligence, that's just thoroughness, that's — did I say "his own Attorney General"? That part sounds worse out loud than it did in my head. But Carr already called the ad spending normal, so clearly the process works fine when it's checking him.”
The DOJ disbanded its crypto enforcement team in April 2025 and ordered inconsistent investigations closed - while the president's family runs a crypto business CNBC, 8 April 2025 (Blanche memo)
President Trump wrote Wednesday that he asked U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche to “study” the Office of Inspector General’s report that cleared former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell of criminal wrongdoing related to the central bank’s renovations.
An election spending watchdog on Friday accused President Donald Trump of committing a "clear-cut violation of campaign finance law" through his stated control over spending decisions made by the MAGA Inc. super political action committee. Citing decades of legal precedent, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) argued that federal office…
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