House Democrats are eagerly preparing to wield a power they do not yet have.
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.
The Washington Post spoke to a dozen Democratic members and staffers poised to run committees should the party retake the House. They said 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 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,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-California), who would probably lead investigations as chair the Oversight Committee in a Democratic-held House, said in an interview. “We are all talking.”
At the same time, some Democrats who were on the Hill during Trump’s first term are cautioning their colleagues about overpromising what their investigations can accomplish. The White House in a statement was dismissive of Democrats’ efforts. Meanwhile, officials there are strategizing how to block the investigations if Democrats take the majority.
“Democrats have no agenda to improve the lives of the American people, just plans to obstruct and baselessly target President Trump’s commonsense agenda,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said in a statement.
These are the priorities now emerging:
Trump family enrichment
Democrats are laying the groundwork for investigations of how Trump and his family are getting richer while he is in office.
Garcia’s committee launched a running tracker of the Trump family’s profits from cryptocurrency and foreign deals, calculating that Trump pocketed $2.25 billion from foreign payments in the first year of his second term.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), who would play a key investigatory role as head of the Judiciary Committee for a Democratic majority, has sought more information about investments by 1789 Capital and American Ventures, venture capital firms linked to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Raskin’s investigation would probe companies the Trump sons invested in that got government contracts or favorable policies from the administration.
Other Democratic targets include Trump’s settlement with the IRS shielding his family and businesses from future audits; his social media platform, Truth Social, selling fast access to his posts; and his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s business dealings.
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Handouts to supporters
Democrats have slammed Trump for using his clemency power to pardon convicted fraudsters who donated to his campaigns or who maintain close ties to his political circle. Many of those pardoned fraudsters were 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.
Rep. Jared Huffman (California), ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, has his sights set on mining and energy deals that have benefited Trump’s supporters. The Trump administration recently offered a $1.2 billion settlement to a German energy company to give up its offshore wind leases. The 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,” Huffman said. “It’s a glaring example of just the abuse of trust and the total waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Other Democratic targets include Trump’s blanket pardon for participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and regulatory moves to reopen a Southern California oil pipeline dormant since a major spill more than a decade ago.
Construction projects
In his second term, Trump has directed much of his attention to upgrading the White House, beautifying Washington, D.C., and building new monuments. Democrats would dig into projects such as the botched repair of the Reflecting Pool, his takeover of the Kennedy Center and the White House ballroom that he has rushed to build without seeking approval.
Immigration enforcement
In the last election cycle, the Trump campaign took aim at Democrats’ handling of immigration. But the American public has soured on his administration’s aggressive enforcement tactics, particularly following an operation in Minneapolis earlier this year that resulted in the deaths of two American citizens.
Now Democrats have their sights set on Trump’s tactics, spotlighting misconduct allegations against immigration officers; the detention of lawful residents and citizens; the rising death toll in immigration detention centers; the deployment of the National Guard in liberal cities; and the alleged mishandling of spending and contracts by then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem.
Reshaping the federal government
As Trump remakes the federal government to carry out his agenda, Democrats have raised alarms about the destruction of long-standing institutions and checks on presidential power. Committees overseeing specific agencies could dig into whether offices such as the student loan program at the Education Department or the Labor Department’s workplace safety office are meeting their congressionally mandated responsibilities.
Rep. Jim Himes (Connecticut), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said there has been a purge of intelligence officials who have contradicted the president, including the authors of an assessment that undercut Trump’s rationale for deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process and a report that found limited damage from U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last year.
“I’m going to go case-by-case with some of these people who lost their jobs,” Himes said.
Other Democratic targets include the mass firings by the U.S. DOGE Service; the dissolution of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the dismantling of the Education Department; efforts to reduce the childhood vaccine schedule; and the impoundment of funds not authorized by Congress.
Prosecutions of Trump’s political enemies
Democrats want to probe prosecutions they consider politically motivated, including those focused on former FBI director James B. Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and the Democratic lawmakers who released a video in November telling military personnel they could refuse illegal orders.
Trump has complained of political persecution and tried to create a $1.8 billion fund for victims of government “weaponization,” which fell apart this summer when even some Republicans balked at the possibility of compensating people convicted for attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Democrats are also keen to revisit that deeply unpopular saga.
Institutional pressure campaigns
Democrats are furious at how Trump has wielded the federal government’s regulatory power to pressure law firms, universities and corporations into changing policies — and at many of those institutions for capitulating. They may seek to haul in the leaders of law firms that ended diversity, equity and inclusion programs to avoid sanctions; executives at Apple and Google who agreed to pull immigration enforcement-tracking apps off their platforms; and David Ellison, whom they allege skewed news coverage at CBS to the right to secure federal approval for his purchase of Paramount.
Apple and Google have said they were responding to safety risks caused by the apps. Ellison has defended the Paramount deal as beneficial to audiences and said the accusations of partisanship at CBS are false.
Foreign affairs
Trump’s close adviser Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner have served as leading peace negotiators with countries including Iran, Israel, Russia and Ukraine, even without formally joining his administration.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (New York), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he wants to delve into how Trump has sidelined the traditional government experts in global dealmaking and instead dispatched private citizens — some with potential financial conflicts of interest — on diplomatic missions. He pointed to an arrangement where investors tied to the United Arab Emirates bought a $500 million stake in a crypto company run by the sons of Trump and Witkoff, days before Trump’s inauguration last year, as a potential target for investigation.
“It’s all Steve Witkoff and Kushner. So who’s there other than them?” Meeks said. “What role does the State Department play in this?”
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Witkoff has divested from his crypto venture and that the personal business activities of Witkoff and Kushner are unrelated to their diplomatic engagements.
“Both Special Envoy Witkoff and Mr. Kushner are experienced dealmakers who have done more to advance American interests in the past year than these Trump-deranged Democrats have accomplished over their entire careers,” Kelly said in a statement.
Other Democratic targets include the Board of Peace, a multinational group meant to end conflicts; the new presidential plane gifted by Qatar; tariffs and trade deals; the Iran war; military intervention and strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats in Venezuela; and the redevelopment of Gaza.
The Epstein files
Democrats have turned the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein into a political cudgel against Trump. Last year, when the president reversed course on a campaign promise to release the files from an old federal investigation of the convicted sex offender’s crimes, Democrats accused Trump of a cover-up and then powered an effort that forced him to make the documents public anyway. They kept up the drumbeat as his administration struggled to quickly release the files.
Democrats are planning fresh hearings to keep the scandal in the public consciousness. Calling in old associates to testify about how Epstein got away with his sex trafficking ring for so long could allow Democrats to continue making insinuations about Trump.
Trump and Epstein had a long-standing friendship before falling out in the mid-2000s. Authorities have not accused Trump of participating in Epstein’s criminal conduct.
Potential roadblocks for Democrats
The Trump administration is already making moves to protect itself from scrutiny.
The White House Counsel’s Office briefed political appointees on how to best prepare for congressional oversight, The Post previously reported. Meanwhile, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has argued that Trump’s private counsel can avoid congressional questions by asserting executive privilege. The Justice Department has also argued the Presidential Records Act — which requires presidential documents be preserved — is unconstitutional.
These moves could be challenged in court, but they could threaten Democrats’ ability to interview Trump’s outside advisers or obtain records.
The executive privilege memo is “the clearest indication that the administration thinks they’re going to lose at least the House,” said Dave Rapallo, a former Democratic staff director for the House Oversight Committee and a professor at Georgetown Law School.
Democrats have waved away concerns that they could come under criticism for being more focused on going after Trump than legislating, arguing that they can do both at the same time.
“We’re going to hear that from Republicans,” Huffman said. “We’re just going to have to use our best judgment.”
But Himes said Democrats do need to be careful not to raise public expectations beyond what their investigations can reasonably deliver.
“How we do it matters,” he said, noting that some of his constituents are already demanding Trump’s impeachment in “hour number one” that Democrats regain control of the House.
He compared the situation to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, during the first Trump term, which Himes said became a “religious totem” for many liberals but then landed flat when it didn’t lead to Trump being forced from office.
“We were in the terrible position of looking like we failed to deliver,” Himes said. “That’s one of the reasons that the American public thinks Democrats are lame today.”
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