The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has an ongoing, extensive investigation into prediction market platform Polymarket, according to a person familiar with the inquiry. 

The Wall Street Journal first reported the investigation on Friday.

A spokesperson for the CFTC and another for Polymarket both declined to comment. 

News of the investigation comes more than a week after a Wall Street Journal story revealed that Polymarket conducted a misleading marketing campaign, making content creators appear as though they were winning on the platform when in reality they weren’t putting any money down.

The person familiar with the inquiry, who was not authorized to speak publicly, did not disclose a timeline for when the commission’s investigation into Polymarket began. 

Polymarket reiterated to CNBC that it is taking steps in response to the Journal’s investigation into its marketing . 

“We are conducting a comprehensive audit of active promotional content to ensure it complies with our standards, as well as applicable regulatory and legal disclosure requirements,” a spokesperson said in a statement. 

The CFTC investigation marks a reversal for Polymarket’s regulatory fortunes over the past year. While the company was originally banned from allowing U.S. users in 2022 for not properly registering with regulators, investigations by the CFTC and the Department of Justice were later dropped in July of last year without charges.

Polymarket’s CFTC-regulated U.S. exchange launched in December, reopening access to domestic users, and had a waitlist to access the platform lifted six weeks ago.

The CFTC under Chairman Michael Selig has been aggressive in its support for prediction markets, but the investigation into Polymarket would mark the commission’s first high-profile inquiry into an event contract platform under his leadership. 

The Department of Justice on Friday dropped its criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, removing a major hurdle to the Senate confirming President Donald Trump‘s nomination of Kevin Warsh to replace him.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, said she was abandoning the probe in a post on X, which came three days after Warsh testified before the Senate Banking Committee on his nomination.

Pirro had said just Wednesday that she was committed to continuing the criminal probe, which had been crippled by a federal judge’s ruling quashing subpoenas her office issued to the Fed.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican and Banking Committee member, had an effective hold on the full Senate from voting to confirm Warsh as Fed chair unless the criminal investigation ended.

Pirro, in her announcement dropping the probe, said that instead of her office, the Federal Reserve’s inspector general “has been asked this morning” to investigate cost overruns in the multi-billion-dollar renovation of the central bank’s headquarters in Washington.

She has claimed the renovation — which the Fed IG has been investigating since last summer — and Powell’s testimony about the project to the Banking Committee was her reason for investigating the Fed chief.

Powell and others had said that the real reason for Pirro’s probe was to pressure him and the Fed to lower interest rates as Trump wanted.

Powell had asked the inspector general in July 2025 to review the renovation project after Trump criticized its cost.

He noted at the time that the IG conducted an audit in 2021 to assess the Fed Board’s “process for planning and managing multiple renovation projects as well as procuring services under various renovation-related contracts.”

An IG spokesperson in a statement to CNBC on Friday said the IG is “actively working to complete” an “evaluation of the Board’s building renovation project,” and that it would make the results of that investigation available to the public and Congress when it is done.

Pirro in her X post said, “The IG has the authority to hold the Federal Reserve accountable to American taxpayers.”

“I expect a comprehensive report in short order and am confident the outcome will assist in resolving, once and for all, the questions that led this office to issue subpoenas,” she said.

“Accordingly, I have directed my office to close our investigation as the IG undertakes this inquiry,” Pirro said.

“Note well, however, that I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.”

Federal prosecutors are still pressuring the Federal Reserve over the Trump administration’s allegations that there was some malfeasance involved in ongoing building revelations and Chair Jerome Powell‘s testimony to Congress about them. But legal experts say U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro’s investigation appears to be in trouble, and she faces a ticking clock to appeal a judge’s rulings against her. 

Investigators from Pirro’s office visited a Fed construction site Tuesday, according to a note sent by the Fed’s legal team to the prosecutors and seen by CNBC. The investigators appeared “without prior notice” and asked for a tour, Robert Hur, an attorney for the Fed, wrote in the note.

“Any construction project that has cost overruns of almost 80% over the original construction budget deserves some serious review,” Pirro said in a statement to CNBC.

The investigators’ visit comes at a crucial juncture for Pirro’s investigation. James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled last month that the prosecutors hadn’t met the low bar to seek a subpoena to the Fed. He quashed subpoenas Pirro’s office had issued, and on April 3 declined a request by the prosecutors to appeal the order. 

Pirro has 30 days to appeal Boasberg’s ruling quashing the subpoenas under the appeals court’s rules. That sets up May 4 as a date by which the Senate may attempt to ahead with an initial vote on the nominee to replace Powell with former Fed governor Kevin Warsh.

The fate of Warsh’s nomination is tied to the Powell investigation. Sen. Thom Tillis, R.-N.C., said as recently as Tuesday he intends to vote against allowing Warsh to proceed as long as Pirro’s investigation remains unresolved. Tillis and Powell describe the investigation as an attempt to bully the Fed into lowering interest rates. 

Congress gave the Fed the power to set interest rates independently of politics, because it tends to be popular to keep rates low, even though that can risk inflation. 

Warsh is set to testify in front of the Senate Banking Committee on April 21, though with Tillis blocking his confirmation, it isn’t clear what would happen next. A hearing is a step the committee takes ahead of voting on a nominee.

The investigators’ visit to the Fed, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, may have been an attempt to break that logjam. 

A prosecutor from Pirro’s office told Boasberg in March that DOJ does “not know” if there had been improper conduct by Powell and declined an offer by the judge to present any suspicions without presence of the defense. Boasberg proceeded to rule that the prosecutors’ subpoenas were illegitimate because the government had…

The top Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary committees are calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether departing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lied under oath before Congress.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the ranking member on the Senate panel, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House committee, sent a referral to Bondi on Monday saying Noem may have violated statues prohibiting perjury and making false statements to Congress when she appeared before their committees on March 3 and March 4.

“A number of her statements appear to violate criminal statutes prohibiting perjury and knowingly making false statements to Congress,” the lawmakers wrote, focusing on her remarks that the department hadn’t violated court orders related to its immigration enforcement.

President Donald Trump fired Noem earlier this month after her testimony and tapped Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to replace her. Mullin will need to be confirmed by his Senate colleagues before taking over DHS and will appear before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

According to Durbin and Raskin, Noem falsely claimed on multiple occasions that DHS had not violated any court orders.

“Those statements were false. DHS has repeatedly defied court orders to release individuals from ICE detention and has even failed to release individuals for days or weeks after a court-ordered date,” they wrote.

They also said she made false claims about the bidding process for a DHS contract on a $220 million television ad campaign, about the detention of U.S. citizens and detention conditions.

Members of Congress and committees can make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice outlining evidence of alleged crimes. But such communications don’t compel the DOJ to investigate.

“While we have low expectations that you will pursue this matter given your partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice, we note that the statute of limitations for perjury and for knowingly and willfully making false statements to Congress is five years,” the lawmakers wrote.

Sen. Tim Scott on Wednesday said he hopes the federal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell “goes away” so the Senate can take up the nomination of Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump‘s pick to replace the head of the U.S. central bank.

“That proceeding going away allows for us to get the Fed fully functioning, back on target,” Scott, who chairs the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said during an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has vowed to hold up any Fed nominees until a federal criminal investigation into Powell is resolved. Trump floated the idea of firing Powell last year and lashed out at the Fed chair for refusing to cut interest rates to the extent he desired. Powell has denied any wrongdoing and has said he is being targeted for refusing to accede to Trump’s demands.

Powell was expected to testify before Congress on Feb. 11, but missed that date because of the federal probe, Scott said.

“I had a conversation with Jay about his testimony,” Scott said. “I recommended that he come before the committee.”

“At this point he is more concerned about the criminal proceeding ,” he said. “And I get that.”

Congress can compel an elected official to testify, but the Banking committee did not do that with Powell in this case.

The Fed declined to comment on whether Powell refused to testify.

Tillis is otherwise supportive of Warsh, who Trump nominated for the role in January, but doubled down on his blockade after meeting with the Fed nominee on Tuesday.

“This is not about people, it’s about process,” Tillis said. “I think this is a foul.”

“This is about this is bedrock principle of Fed independence,” Tillis told reporters Tuesday. “I have no earthly idea what the market reaction would have been if suddenly the perception is that the Fed chair serves at the pleasure of the president.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., another Banking committee member, told CNBC earlier Wednesday he sees no reason why some Democrats won’t support Warsh’s nomination.

“There’s really no reason by anything from he’s ever said or that he’s done that, that Democrats shouldn’t support his nomination,” Cramer, who was scheduled to meet with Warsh on Wednesday, said. “They’re going to be rigorous, of course, in their interviewing of him and and the cross examination … when his hearing takes place. But I think we should be on track to get him across the finish line so that there’s no gap between … the end of Jay Powell’s term and the beginning of the new term.”

The investigation into Powell is in part based on testimony Powell gave to the Senate Banking committee last year. Scott has said in the past that he did not believe Powell committed a crime in his testimony, sentiment he repeated Wednesday. He said the Senate would begin confirmation hearings for Warsh “as soon as possible.”

“At the end of the day … when he was before the committee he definitely was unprepared,” Scott said of…

A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Department of Justice‘s release and redactions of documents related to disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The letter, signed by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, alleges the DOJ did not comply with a law that aimed to compel the release of the Epstein files while protecting victims.

“Contrary to Congress’s explicit directive to protect victims, these records included email addresses and nude photos in which the names and faces of publicly-identified and non-public victims could be identified,” the lawmakers wrote. “But when it came to information identifying powerful business and political figures who are alleged coconspirators or material witnesses, DOJ appears to have heavily redacted those records.”

The GAO is an independent, non-partisan legislative branch agency with authority to audit and investigate the federal government.

The DOJ has been repeatedly criticized for withholding parts of the Epstein files from the public in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed in November after months of opposition. That law mandated the full release of documents by Dec. 19.

While the DOJ has released millions of documents to date, it blew past the December deadline and many more Epstein files entries have not yet been made public, prompting outcry from both Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have called for the DOJ’s Inspector General to investigate the department’s handling of the Epstein files. The House Oversight Committee last week voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi as part of its probe into Epstein, who died in 2019.

The letter asks Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown to review the “protocols and practices” the DOJ used for the review, redaction and release of the Epstein files and to report back to Congress. It specifically asks the GAO to investigate whether the release of the “files has served to cover up child sexual abuse.”

“This horrific scandal is one where powerful, wealthy men groomed, abused, and raped young women, men, and children,” the senators wrote “It is critical to understand what led to DOJ’s failure to redact the victims’ information and re-victimize those individuals while violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act in its redactions of information related to their alleged abusers.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he wants “a very honorable and honest investigation” into the controversial killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by a federal agent in Minnesota over the weekend.

“We’re doing a big investigation,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“I want to see the investigation, I’m going to be watching over it,” he said. “I want to see it myself.”

Shortly after Trump spoke, MS Now, citing three people briefed on the matter, reported that the Department of Justice had decided not to conduct a civil rights investigation of Pretti’s death.

“And instead two units of the Department of Homeland Security will investigate their officers and the man they killed,” MS Now reported.

Trump’s comments were the latest in a series of recent statements and moves by him and the White House that have sought to dial back his administration’s initially bellicose comments on Pretti’s killing on Saturday in Minneapolis.

Pretti’s death came weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the city fatally shot another U.S. citizen, Renee Good, as she attempted to drive away from another agent telling her to exit her car.

On Monday, Trump said that Tom Homan, his administration’s border czar, would go to Minnesota to manage ICE‘s on-the-ground operations there.

Homan reportedly has been at odds with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who initially called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who wanted “to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”

“Tom Homan … is in Minnesota now, he’s meeting with governor [Tim Walz], and he’s meeting with the mayor [Jacob Frey], I think later,” Trump said. “And I hear that’s all going very well.”

Trump spoke on the phone with Walz and Frey on Monday. Both officials are Democrats who for weeks have been strongly critical of the Trump administration’s surge of immigration enforcement officers to Minneapolis and elsewhere.

On Monday, multiple news outlets reported that Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol commander at large, was leaving Minneapolis, where his comments on Pretti’s death and other immigration-enforcement related issues had inflamed tensions.

Bovino had claimed that Pretti, who had a licensed handgun on his person at the time of the confrontation with federal agents, may have intended to “massacre law enforcement.”

Noem and Bovino’s claims have been undercut by videos taken of Pretti’s shooting, which shows him on the ground when he is apparently shot from behind by an agent.

Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, he confirmed on Sunday evening.

Powell said the probe was the result of the Fed “setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of” President Donald Trump.

“On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June,” Powell said in a video statement tweeted by the Fed’s X account.

“That testimony concerned in part, a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings,” he said.

“I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one, certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve is above the law, but this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure,” Powell said.

The New York Times first reported the probe, citing officials briefed on the matter.

The investigation is being overseen by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, according to the newspaper.

That office is led by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a former New York state prosecutor and Fox News host, who was appointed to that job by Trump.

Trump has repeatedly blasted Powell for the Fed not cutting interest rates as much and as quickly as the president has demanded since entering the White House in January 2025.

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

A judge disqualified a federal prosecutor from overseeing investigations into New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling Thursday that he had been serving in his post unlawfully when he requested subpoenas.

U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield blocked subpoenas requested by John Sarcone, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York.

The judge said the Department of Justice did not follow statutory procedure after judges declined to extend Sarcone’s tenure. “When the Executive branch of government skirts restraints put in place by Congress and then uses that power to subject political adversaries to criminal investigations, it acts without lawful authority. Subpoenas issued under that authority are invalid. The subpoenas are quashed, and Mr. Sarcone is disqualified from further participation in the underlying investigations.”

James, a Democrat, had challenged Sarcone’s authority after he issued subpoenas seeking information about lawsuits she filed against President Donald Trump, claiming he had committed fraud in his business dealings, and separately against the National Rifle Association and some of its former leaders.

Justice Department lawyers say Sarcone was appointed properly and that the subpoenas were valid. James claims the inquiry into her lawsuits is part of a campaign of baseless investigations and prosecutions of Trump’s perceived enemies.

The judge said the Justice Department did not follow statutory procedure after judges declined to extend Sarcone’s tenure. “Instead, on the same day that the judges declined to extend Mr. Sarcone’s appointment, the Department took coordinated steps — through personnel moves and shifting titles — to install Mr. Sarcone as Acting U.S. Attorney. Federal law does not permit such a workaround.”

James’ office issued a statement calling Thursday’s ruling “an important win for the rule of law.”

“We will continue to defend our office’s successful litigation from this administration’s political attacks,” the statement said.

A call and an email to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York were made seeking comment.

The ruling is the latest to address the legality of unusual maneuvers the Trump administration has performed to try and keep its favored candidates for U.S. attorney in those jobs indefinitely, without going through the usual process of getting them confirmed in the U.S. Senate.

On…

Meta has been hit with an EU antitrust investigation over its use of AI features in WhatsApp, as the European bloc continues to ramp up challenges to US big tech giants.

The probe will examine whether Meta’s new policy on allowing AI providers’ access to WhatsApp may breach EU competition rules, Brussels said in a statement Thursday morning.

A new policy announced by Meta in October prohibited AI providers from using a tool allowing businesses to contact customers via WhatsApp when AI is the main service offered, the European Commission said.

While businesses may still use AI tools for functions like customer support, the bloc was concerned the new policy might “prevent third party AI providers from offering their services through WhatsApp in the European Economic Area (EEA),” it added.

“The claims are baseless,” a WhatsApp spokesperson told CNBC in a statement, adding that the app’s application programming interface (API) was not designed to support AI chatbots and “puts a strain on our systems.”

“The AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations and operating systems,” the company added.

It comes months on from the Commission fining Google 2.95 billion euros ($3.45 billion) for breaching antitrust rules around online advertising. In April, Apple was fined 500 million euros after being found to have breached anti-steering obligations. The same month, Meta was hit with a 200 million euros fine for breaching obligations to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data.

Fines for breaking the EU’s antitrust rules can reach as much as 10% of a company’s annual revenue. There are no dates set for the antitrust investigation to close, but previous cases have run on for years.

“We must ensure European citizens and businesses can benefit fully of this technological revolution and act to prevent dominant digital incumbents from abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors,” said the bloc’s Commissioner for Competition Teresa Ribera.

The investigation will cover the entire EEA apart from Italy, to avoid an overlap with its own ongoing proceedings for the possible imposition of interim measures concerning Meta’s conduct.

U.S. President Donald Trump has previously threatened the EU with an investigation that could lead to tariffs for imposing fines and regulation on the country’s tech giants.

“As I have said before, my Administration will NOT allow these discriminatory actions to stand,” he said following the EU’s Google fine in September.