Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell has rebutted the Trump administration’s accusations that he misled Congress over a $2.5bn refurbishment of the central bank’s headquarters, saying it did not inform government planners of changes to the project because they were not “substantial” enough to warrant it.

Loomer, an increasingly influential Trump adviser, has spearheaded calls for a special counsel to oversee the handling of files connected to the investigation of Epstein, the disgraced financier who was convicted of sex crimes and suspected of trafficking minors before he died by suicide in jail in 2019.

"The president would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said July 17.