Democrats are not yet in control of the House, but they’re already past the point of measuring the drapes — they’re pulling information and hunting corruption.
“Favored to regain the majority in November’s midterm elections — and with little official business to consider in the handful of days left in this session — Democrats’ attention has turned to mapping out an accountability agenda that would pull President Donald Trump, his administration and his family into a harsh spotlight next year,” reports the Washington Post.
A dozen Democratic members and staffers poised to run committees are already telling the Post that they’ve got their eyes on targets and nuggets of research likely to serve up trouble for Trump and his family. And they are preparing “sweeping investigations of Trump’s growing wealth in office, his remaking of the federal government and his pursuit of his political enemies.”
In recent weeks, staffers have already connected with outside groups for guidance on how to conduct effective investigations.
“There’s so much corruption and grift that it’s going to take the entire House on the Democratic side to do investigations appropriately,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who would likely lead investigations as chair the Oversight Committee in a Democratic-held House. “We are all talking.”
Democrats are already “laying the groundwork” for investigations of how Trump and his family are getting richer while he is in office. Garcia’s committee has launched a running tracker of the Trump family’s profits from cryptocurrency and foreign deals, estimated that Trump has pocketed $2.25 billion from foreign payments in the first year of his second term.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) the likely new head of the Judiciary Committee, is sniffing around investments by venture capital firms linked to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. The Post reports Raskin’s investigation would probe companies that got government contracts or favorable policies from the administration. Among these targets are Trump’s settlement with the IRS shielding his family and businesses from future audits; his social media platform, Truth Social, selling access to his posts; and his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s doings.
Dems will also be targeting Trump’s abuse of clemency power to pardon convicted fraudsters who donated to his campaigns or have ties to his political circle. Many of the pardoned criminals were also absolved of the requirement to pay restitution to their victims.
“One case they’ve flagged for review is that of nursing home executive Joseph Schwartz, who spent nearly $1 million lobbying last year for a pardon, which Trump granted seven months after Schwartz was sentenced for defrauding the government out of $38 million,” reports the Post.
Rep. Jared Huffman says he’s got his sights on “mining and energy deals that have benefited Trump’s supporters,” he told the Post, with Trump offering a $1.2 billion settlement to a German energy company to give up its offshore wind leases. That deal requires the firm to reinvest most of that money in a Louisiana liquefied natural gas project owned by a Trump donor.
“Trump is using the settlement fund as a slush fund,” said Huffman. “It’s a glaring example of just the abuse of trust and the total waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Among other targets, including immigration enforcement and Trump’s unprecedented reshape of the federal government, are Trump’s prosecutions of his political enemies, including former FBI director James B. Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and the lawmakers who released a video in November reminding military personnel they could refuse illegal orders.
And amid these potential targets and others will certainly be the Epstein files, which Trump reversed a campaign promise to hide the convicted sex offender’s crimes for unclear reasons.
