Trump's officials brace for 'avalanche' as legal reckoning looms

President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., April 10, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Trump officials are scrambling for lawyers as they prepare for an ‘avalanche’ of congressional investigations if the Democrats take control of each chamber in November, according to The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, cabinet secretaries and mid-level staffers are contacting law firms in fear of Democrats looking into pay-to-play pardons for the Kennedy Center renovations and the secret and suspicious financing behind Donald Trump Jr’s wedding.

“The calls started sporadically in June and have picked up in frequency since then,” Judd Stone, co-founder of the Texas-based law firm Stone Hilton, told the Journal.

With conflict-of-interest rules, the same firm won’t be able to represent multiple officials, which has led to senior administration figures scrambling to quickly secure the top attorneys before their colleagues do, per the lawyer.

Although the DOJ can defend the administration figures, some of them feel more comfortable with lawyers who are obligated to protect them.

Steve Roberts, a partner at conservative law firm Lex Politica, said his firm has received calls from Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs who have supported Trump.

“If they have been supportive of this administration, they know there is a possibility that there is a target on their back,” Roberts said.

Democrats have already threatened pending investigations. They have sent out Congressional letters targeting people and organizations connected to the administration, including Jared Kushner, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Kennedy Center leadership and those on the receiving end of Trump’s presidential pardons.

Lawyers believe those requests could become subpoenas if Democrats gain committee control as soon as February.

Ashley Callen, a former legal adviser to House Republican leadership, said: “Democrats are much more savvy this time around than the first time.”

The White House has been preparing since spring, with senior officials discussing potential responses to subpoenas and investigation strategies. Trump himself has reportedly moved by transferring his former personal attorney, Will Scharf, into the White House counsel’s office and appointing Katie Bailey, who has congressional oversight experience, to lead legislative affairs.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis rejected the idea of the GOP wipeout and accused Democrats of pursuing a “decade-long witch hunt against President Trump.”

But Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, warned that the president’s experience with investigations won’t provide any comfort to the inexperienced aides.

“On one hand, Trump will be completely prepared for it because of everything he went through in the first term,” Mulvaney told the Journal, adding: “On the other hand—and I think people are missing this—most of his staff has not been through this.”

These lawyers don’t come cheap, as former officials told the Journal they knew of no legal-defense fund that can compare to one built during Trump’s first term.

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