POWELL UNDER CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION AS U.S. DESCENDS INTO AUTOCRATIC RULE
The Narativ | Know Sooner
🚨 Stories To Watch
1. 💣 DOJ WEAPONIZED AGAINST THE FED
The mask is off. On Friday, the Justice Department served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas threatening criminal indictment of Chair Jerome Powell—ostensibly over building renovation testimony. Powell’s response was extraordinary: a public video statement calling it “pretext” for a pressure campaign to control interest rates.
“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.”
Two Republican senators immediately broke ranks. Thom Tillis says he’ll block all Fed nominees “until this legal matter is fully resolved.” Markets fell. Gold hit record highs. The dollar dropped. Powell’s term expires in May. Trump has already said “anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman.”
This is the financial equivalent of the Saturday Night Massacre. An independent Fed is the last firewall against political manipulation of the economy.
2. 🎖️ IRAN PROTESTS TOP 500 DEAD
Ten thousand arrested. Over 500 killed. The protests in Iran are entering their third week, and Trump is “weighing military options.” He says Tehran “called to negotiate.” The regime is using live ammunition against demonstrators.
What started as economic protests has become an existential threat to the government. The crackdown will determine whether this becomes Iran’s 1979—or its Tiananmen.
3. ⚖️ ICE KILLING SPARKS NATIONWIDE PROTESTS
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is defending the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. New video shows her moving her vehicle as agents surrounded her. Noem calls it justified. Minnesota Democrats call it murder.
Protests spread to cities across the country yesterday. More demonstrations planned today. The question being asked in the streets: if this is how they treat citizens, what happens to everyone else?
4. 📉 SUPREME COURT TARIFF RULING WEDNESDAY
The court’s next opinion day is January 14. Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs face their constitutional test. If the justices reject presidential authority, companies like Costco are already lined up for refunds. Treasury Secretary Bessent says they can cover it.
The tariff book just hit 4,500 pages—100 more than last year. Businesses are drowning in complexity while waiting to learn if any of it is legal.
5. 🔴 THE HEIST THEY BURIED
Speaking of DOJ being weaponized: Seventeen years ago, it happened in reverse. A federal prosecutor in Florida was building a money laundering case against Jeffrey Epstein. She had subpoenaed every financial transaction since 2003. She was following the money toward a $6.7 billion vault called Liquid Funding.
Then Epstein wrote to Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne: resolve the sex case, and the financial investigation goes away.
Four months later, Bear collapsed. Three weeks after that, the vault paid out in full. Trump’s casino debt was inside. The new chapter of The Greatest Heist reveals, for the first time, how Epstein triggered the 2008 collapse—and who got saved.
🎯 THE PATTERN
DOJ is a weapon. In 2008, it was deployed to protect a criminal network and bury a financial investigation that would have exposed an $80 trillion pump-and-dump scheme. Today, it’s deployed against the Fed chair because he won’t cut rates fast enough.
Different targets. Same principle: the law serves power, not justice.
The question isn’t whether institutions can survive this. The question is whether we’re documenting fast enough to stop it.
