• President Trump criticized U.S. attorneys at a White House event, calling them weak and slow to prosecute favored targets.

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Dozens of U.S. attorneys, who lead prosecutors’ offices around the country, went to the White House Thursday for what was supposed to be a ceremonial photo shoot. After Attorney General Pam Bondi introduced the group of prosecutors, Trump criticized them as ineffective, saying the group was making it difficult for Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to do their jobs, the people said.

The exchange came a day before federal prosecutors sent grand jury subpoenas to the Federal Reserve on Friday, related to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony last summer about the central bank’s building-renovation project.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who was in attendance at the White House event, said in a social-media post Monday that the Fed subpoenas came after her office hadn’t gotten answers to multiple information requests. The inquiry opened in November. A lawyer in Pirro’s office sent two emails to the Fed last month—one before Christmas and another 10 days later—seeking information about the renovation, according to a person familiar with the matter. The emails didn’t refer to any deadline or criminal investigation.

“None of this would have happened if they had just responded to our outreach,” Pirro said in the post. “This office makes decisions based on the merits, nothing more and nothing less.”

The Justice Department referred questions to the White House, which didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesman for Pirro’s office declined to comment Tuesday. Pirro posted a group photo from the meeting on her Instagram account.

Powell in a video statement on Sunday called the probe politically motivated. A Fed spokesperson declined to comment.

Among his grievances with prosecutors, Trump complained that the Justice Department hadn’t yet brought a case against one of his most prominent Democratic adversaries, Sen. Adam Schiff of California, the people said.

The department has been investigating whether Schiff engaged in mortgage fraud. The senator has called the probe a bogus attempt at political retribution.

The president criticized some specific prosecutors by jurisdiction and said he felt betrayed, the people said. 

Asked about Powell during a press gaggle on Tuesday, Trump said, “Well, he’s billions of dollars over budget. So, he either is incompetent, or he is crooked. I don’t know what he is, but he certainly doesn’t do a very good job.”

Trump’s blowup at Justice Department prosecutors comes as the president ramps up pressure on the agency to more aggressively pursue his priorities. He has complained repeatedly in recent weeks about Bondi, calling her an ineffective enforcer of his agenda.

The president’s pressure campaign has rattled people within the department, including some lawyers brought on by the administration. Late last year, Trump forced out a conservative U.S. attorney in Virginia who told supervisors he had not found enough evidence to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey. Former Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan stepped into the job and quickly brought charges against both individuals, only to see the cases dismissed by a judge who ruled Halligan was unlawfully appointed.

The subpoenas to the Federal Reserve have further demoralized Pirro’s office in Washington, where lawyers have left in droves or been fired since Trump’s return to the White House, according to people familiar with the office.

Pirro, a former Fox News personality, took the job in May. Though an unconventional choice, she had experience as a prosecutor, serving as district attorney of Westchester County, N.Y.

Pirro faced an early test with the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in the heart of Washington, D.C., and prosecutors saw her rising to the moment with a polished, professional demeanor. But the relative stability she brought to the office eroded in the late summer as Trump deployed federal agents and National Guard members into the streets of Washington, with Pirro directing prosecutors to charge defendants with the most serious federal charges possible. Several of those cases have since fallen apart.