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(WASHINGTON) — A top federal judge in Washington on Friday blocked Justice Department subpoenas to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors after determining the government “produced essentially zero evidence” to support a criminal investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, according to an unsealed court opinion. 

“There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will,” U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said in his opinion.

“A mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning. On the other side of the scale, the Government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime; indeed, its justifications are so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual,” the judge added.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro blasted Boasberg as an activist judge and has pledged to appeal the ruling.

The Justice Department’s probe centered on Powell’s testimony to Congress last year about cost overruns in a multi-billion-dollar office renovation project.

Powell rebuked the investigation in a video message in January as a politically motivated effort to influence the Fed’s interest rate policy.

The Justice Department’s move was met with heavy criticism from the Hill especially from key Republicans who stressed the importance of the Fed’s independence.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, warned Pirro’s office against attempting to appeal Boasberg’s ruling.

“This ruling confirms just how weak and frivolous the criminal investigation of Chairman Powell is and it is nothing more than a failed attack on Fed independence.  We all know how this is going to end and the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office should save itself further embarrassment and move on,” Tillis said in an X post Friday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Top Pentagon officials on Friday pledged to combat Iran’s efforts to turn the Strait of Hormuz into a dangerous choke point for the world’s oil supply as the critical waterway stands out as a key piece of terrain to control in the war.

Iran has said it will continue to seek to shut down the key waterway, which threatens the safe passage of oil tankers and could lead to devastating effects on fuel prices and other parts of the market. The Strait of Hormuz is a critical and narrow waterway through which about 20% of the world’s oil flows.

“It’s something we’re dealing with, we have been dealing with it, and [you] don’t need to worry about it,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at a Pentagon briefing, asserting the U.S. won’t allow the strait to “remain contested.”

“The only thing prohibiting transit in the strait right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that. Now, there’s a reason why we chose as one of our primary objectives to destroy the navy. We understood the ability to interdict shipping is something Iran has done for 40 years. It’s key terrain,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth said the Pentagon has options for the strait but did not provide detail on how it would be reopened. U.S. forces continue a relentless barrage of attacks on Iranian missile and drone position, as well as other tactical pain points the regime needs to threaten the strait.

Hegseth noted that Friday is set to see the largest volume of strikes against Iran so far. Some 15,000 targets have been attacked by the U.S. and Israel.

President Donald Trump said he would consider U.S. Navy escorts of commercial ships to help ease an escalating crisis of the world’s oil supply, but remained noncommittal on Friday.

“Well, we would do it if we needed to,” Trump told Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade in a radio interview. “But, you know, hopefully things are going to go very well. We’re going to see what happens.”

The Strait of Hormuz is only about 30 miles wide and just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point. Iran has mines that it can use to litter the strait, which would be an enormously complicated obstacle for ships in the area that are also vulnerable to Iranian missile and drone attacks.

Hegseth told reporters there’s “no clear evidence” Iran has yet placed any mines.

Ships are also vulnerable to Iranian missile and drone attacks. Several commercial ships have been attacked in recent days, both in the strait and Persian Gulf.

While the U.S. develops plans for the strait, Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said the focus continues to be strikes — some of the heaviest so far — against missile and drone platforms as well as factories to cripple Iran’s ability to manufacture new weapons.

Escorting tankers through the strait would be a complex operation, one that the U.S. military doesn’t execute often at such a high level.

“It’s a tactically complex environment,” Caine told reporters Friday when asked about the timetable for possible U.S. Navy escorts. “Before I think we want to take anything through there at scale, we want to make sure that we do the work pursuant to our current military objectives to do, to do that safely and smartly. So, we’re continuing to develop options.”

The closest comparison is from December 2023 through mid-2025, when the U.S. Navy and partner forces, including the United Kingdom and France, escorted commercial vessels through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to shield them from Houthi drone and missile attacks.

The last time the U.S. Navy escorted ships through the Strait of Hormuz was in 1987 and 1988, during the so-called “Tanker War,” when Washington launched convoy operations to shield oil tankers caught in the maritime spillover of the decade-long Iran-Iraq conflict.

At least 140 service members have been wounded with the war as it approaches its second week. Thirteen service members have died. Six soldiers were killed by an Iranian drone strike at a U.S. tactical operations center in Kuwait, one was killed by an Iranian strike at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, and six service members were killed when their refueling aircraft went down in friendly airspace in western Iraq.

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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