Questions over Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh’s contact with the White House are adding another layer of uncertainty to an already unsettled rates outlook, following hawkish but dated FOMC minutes and the Treasury’s buyback intervention. Any perception that Warsh’s decisions are being shaped by the administration rather than by incoming data would weigh on the credibility that supports market expectations for the Fed’s reaction function, particularly around the timing of any future hike.

The issue is unlikely to move markets on its own in the near term, but it fits a broader narrative of an administration increasingly willing to lean on economic institutions, alongside the Treasury’s aggressive intervention in the bond market this week. A sustained question over Fed independence would typically appear first in longer-dated inflation expectations and term premium rather than in immediate price action, which is why the disclosure fight is getting attention even as it remains largely a transparency issue for now.

Four Senate Democrats have formally asked Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh to publicly disclose his conversations with President Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal, after the paper reported that the two have spoken repeatedly since Warsh took the helm of the central bank despite his official calendars showing no record of such contact.

The letter, sent Wednesday and led by Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, was signed by three other Democrats on the committee that oversees the Fed. The senators said undisclosed contact between the president and the Fed chairman risks creating “a perception that the White House is shaping monetary policy.”

According to the Journal, Warsh did not directly answer questions on the matter when Van Hollen raised it at a hearing last month. The senators also noted that the lack of disclosure stands out because Warsh’s calendars, which cover the first five weeks of his term beginning in May, do list meetings with other senior White House economic officials. A Fed spokesperson told the Journal that the central bank has not changed its practice of releasing monthly appointment calendars with a one-month delay.

The senators asked Warsh to either confirm in writing that he has had no contact with Trump since being sworn in, or amend his released calendars to reflect any calls that took place.

The report said informal contact between presidents and Fed chairs has some historical precedent, but it has become far less common in recent decades. That change is often traced to Richard Nixon’s pressure campaign on then-chairman Arthur Burns, which preceded the inflation surge of the 1970s. By the 1980s, communication between the White House and the Fed typically ran through the Treasury secretary instead.

After the Journal’s initial reporting on the calls, White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett sought to minimize their significance, telling Bloomberg Television that Warsh and Trump have a long-standing relationship and speak regularly about the economy, while stressing that Trump does not pressure Warsh on rate decisions. Trump later disputed the extent of the reporting, saying he had spoken with Warsh only once, briefly, a few days earlier.

The Journal also drew a contrast with Warsh’s predecessor, Jerome Powell, who logged his calls with Trump to the minute and disclosed several in-person meetings during his tenure. The episode adds to a broader pattern the Journal has tracked of Trump testing the boundaries of central bank independence more assertively than recent predecessors, including remarks made shortly before Warsh’s swearing-in when Trump publicly urged him to act independently, a notable shift from earlier comments in which the president said he wanted a Fed chair willing to consult with him directly on rate decisions.

Earlier: Jackson Hole hype outruns Warsh playbook of saying as little as possible