Showdown looms as Trump staffers scramble and Dems prep blitz

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. President Donald Trump attend a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 27, 2026.

Well before the seating of Democratic congressional majorities in January, opponents of Donald Trump are making clear that the investigation agenda is alive and building the case for “accountability” for Trump family grift and overly close relationships with the nation’s wealthiest.

The midterm results were still coming in as Representatives Robert Garcia, D-Ca., in line to head the House Government Oversight Committee, and Jaimie Raskin, D-Md., who will chair the Judiciary Committee were telling Trump administration figures to preserve documents for hearings to start soon.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was targeting financial documents from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and expected House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries was underscoring that besides price-cutting efforts, investigations were high on the list of priorities.

Democrats made clear after stunning midterm victories that with subpoena power, they will flex investigative muscles to target Trump administration officials and corporate supporters whom they say have thus far dodged oversight by Republicans in Congress.

The issue will be not just uncovering details of bad behavior by Team Trump but devising laws to prevent repeat in the future.

Some of the issues will surface even starting this week as Congress returns for its lame-duck session, since a call by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to impeach War/Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hangs in the air. That resolution to open impeachment proceedings was shelved by Republicans in a procedural vote Tuesday night but will return in January.

A key issue, of course, is that so much is being conflated as “corruption” by Trump that decisions will be needed to focus what can be achieved. The generalization of “corruption” to cover everything from personal money-making from international negotiations to the possible selling of pardons or White House influence was a dominant theme for the Democratic electoral tidal wave this week.

Access to Trump is being conflated with receipts of a jet plane from Qatari officials; tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest are being lumped in with perceived shakedowns of foreign figures who need American support.

The thinking appears to be narrowing targets rather than considering impeachment proceedings against Trump, which would likely be seen as retributive rather than seeking accountability.

As Team Trump resists, the committees say they will aim at corporate figures, including Elon Musk and Big Tech leaders, to look at corruptive practices from figures who cannot claim a shield from Congress. It’s all enough to have drawn counterthreats of investigation by Attorney General Todd Blanche about inexplicable, unspecified “crimes” that Democrats are overstepping a line of government oversight to target individuals and companies.

The Targets

For Garcia, announced targets include investigation of “The Trump Crime Family, Crony corporations ripping off the American people, Corrupt Trump admin officials profiting off the presidency, Associates of Jeffrey Epstein” and promoting hearings with Epstein victims.

There will be specific looks at Corey Lewandowski, who stands accused of funneling contracts at the Department of Homeland Security to allies, and resigned Ambassador Katie Gilfoyle for soliciting payments in return for private contractor payments. Garcia also has written to demand information about a Russian oligarch’s contributions to Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding.

Musk will be asked to answer for his actions as head of DOGE efforts early on that have been kept secret or his role in slowing or halting satellite surveillance and intelligence to Ukraine, even as Musk and his companies have gotten oodles in government contracts. The House Judiciary Committee Democrats are hiring investigators and prosecutors to “put an end to the rampant and out-of-control corruption overflowing the Trump swamp,” according to a post. The perceived politicization of Trump-generated prosecutions against political enemies is a focus of review as well as Trump’s personal reaping of financial benefits from office, including reported pardons for payments. Raskin wants information on the pressure campaign the White House put on law firms that later agreed to do pro bono work and the Justice Department’s anti-weaponization fund.

The House Homeland Security Committee Democrats told Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “clear your calendar” in anticipation of harsh reviews of the excesses of Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Three committees in the House and two in the Senate are focusing on immigration.

Beyond the Democratic effort, there are a slew of “democracy defender” groups emerging, including CREW, made up of former government ethics lawyers, Defiance.org, which, among other things runs a mobile Jeffrey Epstein files library, Democracy Docket, election law specialists opposing Trump’s voting limits, and The Rule of Law Project, former Justice Department prosecutors working with states to prepare cases that they feel should be brought, as well as Indivisible and other more politically active groups.

Silence in Return

Much of what Democrats have said has drawn official silence from the Trump administration. The appointment of Stephen Miller as White House Chief of Staff says the Trump government will resist any attempts toward “accountability” – the Democratic term — as political retribution by opponents looking to score points in the next presidential election.

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has argued that executive privilege covers the president’s conversations with outside advisers, an idea that is likely to be challenged in court once it is asserted, but that court battle could be lengthy, and one senior Democratic staffer said it could play a role in how the party reinitiates some of its investigations.

Justice clearly sees itself as a defender of anyone in the administration called to account.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Cabinet secretaries down to mid-level staffers have hired lawyers in anticipation of congressional inquiries. Officials are preparing for probes into Trump’s efforts to build a new ballroom, golf course, and memorial to himself, as well as his dealings with the Kennedy Center. Firms are unlikely to be able to represent numerous staffers who may be implicated in the same probe, leaving administration officials scrambling to secure their preferred firms.

For sure, Justice will not prosecute its own Republican colleagues for ignoring congressional subpoenas.

For Democrats, the problem will be picking effective investigations and devising legislative solutions that address more than Trump behavior by presidents, Cabinets, judges and members of Congress more generally. Look for sweeping attempts to bar stock trading by those in office or specific bars on taking money from government contractors for two or more years out of office.

Addressing “corruption” will be a full-time affair that will require bipartisan effort – even out of self-protection from a next president from another party – to change the rules.

Picking Jordan as Minority Leader

Republicans chose Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the strident, never-stop partisan as party leader. Along with the White House choice of Stephen Miller as White House Chief of Staff, it seems clear that Republican lawmakers are actively supporting conflict with the incoming Democratic majority rather than looking for ways to heed the overwhelming message of the midterms.

Jordan’s pitch to colleagues was all about fight. Presumably the good news is that Jordan will no longer be the chief Republican voice on the House Judiciary Committee – one of the battlegrounds over oversight and accountability

Terry H. Schwadron retired as a senior editor at The New York Times, Deputy Managing Editor at The Los Angeles Times and leadership jobs at The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin. He was part of a Pulitzer Gold Medal team in Los Angeles, and his team part of several Pulitzers in New York.

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