Fed blasted by top watchdog over mismanaged $2.5B Palace of Versailles HQ work

A scathing watchdog report blasted the Federal Reserve on Wednesday for severely mismanaging its ‘Palace of Versailles” HQ renovation, but officially cleared former Fed Chair Jerome Powell of any criminal wrongdoing.The bloated project effectively put taxpayers on the hook for $2.5 billion in a botched overhaul that President Donald Trump called “disgraceful.”The blistering 120-page Inspector General review — ordered directly after The Post’s exclusive last year that the overhaul was going ahead despite massive losses — slammed Fed bosses for a pay-as-you-go approach to the eye-wateringly expensive project, which saw costs balloon from an initial $921 million.The report, while not binding on DOJ prosecutors, also cleared Powell of criminal wrongdoing with investigators concluding they found “no reasonable grounds to believe that a violation of federal criminal law had occurred.”Nevertheless, President Trump on Wednesday said he has asked Attorney General Todd Blanche to “study the report” in a TruthSocial post.“Powell should be forced to resign from the Board,” Trump said.“He can’t manage a Building, and he certainly shouldn’t be allowed to manage his High Interest Rate Policy.”Major blunders fueled the overrun, according to the report.

Mid-project, the Fed abruptly scrapped open workspaces in favor of private offices, halting design progress for a staggering 21 months, the findings showed.Mechanical and plumbing costs spiked by nearly $500 million.But Fed bureaucrats rubber-stamped these massive payouts anyway, even when contractors failed to secure the required three competitive bids.The probe also lashed out at the Fed’s leadership for failing to obtain a basic cost estimate until January 2026—three-and-a-half years after construction began.By that point, the board had already agreed to splash out some $2 billion for the lavish project.The Fed normally sends its extra profits to the Treasury to help fund the government, but...