Yellen balks at providing documents

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen is balking at turning over some of the documents ordered by a key House lawmaker in his investigation of a possible leak of market-sensitive information.

Yellen has told Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who heads the House Financial Services Committee, that she can’t provide some documents sought by his subpoena because doing so could jeopardize a criminal investigation by the Justice Department and the Fed’s watchdog inspector general. Yellen said the inspector general has told the Fed that the documents in question — which include records related to an earlier internal review by the Fed’s general counsel — should not be provided.

The move escalated a months-long battle between Yellen and Hensarling over an alleged leak in 2012 of interest-rate information to a financial newsletter.