Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina and chairman of Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, during a confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.
Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said Wednesday he does not think Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell committed any crime when he testified before the Senate last year — even as a Department of Justice investigation centered on that testimony continues.
Scott, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, also predicted fellow GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina will end his blockade of Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Powell as Fed chair.
Tillis on Wednesday in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” doubled down on his vow that he will not vote to advance Warsh out of the Banking Committee until the Powell probe is dropped.
Scott, in a Fox Business interview Wednesday morning, initially slammed Powell.
“I believe that it’s time for a new [Fed] Chair, and thank God Almighty, we’re getting ready to get one,” he said.
“I have found him to be inept at doing his job,” Scott said of Powell. “But ineptness or being incompetent is not a criminal act.”
Scott noted that his questions to the Fed chair during a Banking Committee hearing last June are the same ones that are now under scrutiny by the Trump administration.
“I believe what he did was made a gross error in judgment. He was not prepared for that hearing,” Scott said.
But “I do not believe that he committed a crime during the hearing,” he said.
The comments, while wrapped in criticism, serve as a defense of Powell, whom Trump has frequently railed against as he heaps pressure on the Fed to lower interest rates more quickly.
The remarks are among Scott’s first on the Powell criminal probe since the central bank chairman revealed its existence more than three weeks earlier.
On Monday, Trump said the investigation into Powell, which is being led by U.S. Attorney for Washington Jeanine Pirro, should “take it to the end and see.”
He also jabbed at Tillis, a member of the Banking Committee, who is retiring from Congress next January at the end of his current term. If Tillis sides with all 11 Democrats on the panel in opposing Warsh, he could prevent the Fed nominee from advancing to a full Senate vote.
In the interview with CNBC, Tillis said he is prepared to continue his block “for the remainder of this Congress, if that’s what’s necessary to get to the truth” and keep the Fed independent from executive branch influence.
Scott, a reliable ally of Trump’s, praised Tillis on Fox Business as a productive member of his committee. “I’m thankful that he continues to have real open dialogue on some of the issues he’s concerned about,” Scott said.
“I believe that we’re going to resolve that issue. We’re going to move forward, and Thom Tillis will be voting for Kevin Warsh as the next chairman of Federal Reserve. That’s my prediction,” Scott said. “I believe we can solve the Jay Powell issue and move forward with a strong vote from all Republicans on the committee.”
In a video address after the investigation began, Powell said the DOJ served the Fed “with grand jury subpoenas threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June.”
Powell had testified in part about the multibillion-dollar renovations of the Fed’s Washington headquarters. Trump has repeatedly accused Powell of either incompetence or corruption over his handling of the pricey construction project.
But Powell said the threat of indictment “is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings.”
Rather, he said, it stemmed from the Fed basing its rate-setting decisions on “our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.”