Congressional Democrats are preparing a workaround for the wall of resistance they expect from the Trump administration by going after the private companies and individuals who made deals with the government.
Four people familiar with the planning told MS NOW that Democrats, who are about to take control of Congress, expect President Donald Trump and his appointees to widely refuse subpoenas for documents and testimony.
The Justice Department is unlikely to prosecute anyone for defying Congress, and the federal government could simply pay any fines that follow a contempt finding, so Democrats plan to go where the administration can’t block them.
A lot of the relevant evidence sits in the email accounts and files of law firms, corporations and former officials, who are far more likely to comply, and corporate America has gotten the message.
“We can expect subpoenas to go after internal corporate communications, as well as communications between corporate executives and administration officials,” said Daniel Suleiman, a former Justice Department official now at the Covington & Burling law firm.
Suleiman has advised clients to contact congressional committee staff proactively if they think they might be targeted. Many are already doing so.
“I just have done 15 meetings in the last 72 hours with corporate counsel,” a senior congressional aide told MS NOW.
Democrats say one of the most promising areas is the alleged “pay-to-play” market around the administration. Trump-connected lawyers have reportedly been paid millions of dollars to lobby for pardons, contracts and antitrust relief. The companies and individuals who made those payments will likely have little choice but to tell Congress how much they paid and what they think they got for it.
Other likely targets include alleged self-dealing by the Trump family, the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, ICE’s use of force, and the deals law firms, media companies and universities struck with the administration.
Picking a starting point is the hard part. When House committee staffers were asked to prepare 100-day plans, “everybody turned in 15 years worth of work,” the senior aide said.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday on CNN that he might prosecute members of Congress over what he called intimidation, though he didn’t say what law he thought had been broken.
“They’re talking about going after companies, private companies who happen to have made investments in this country over the past couple years. That is not oversight,” Blanche said.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, brushed it off.
“They can come after us however they want,” Garcia said. “We’re not going to be intimidated.”
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