Democrats are preparing large-scale investigations against Trump in the event of an election victory
The U.S. Democratic Party is preparing a large-scale strategy for investigations into President Donald Trump if it gains control of the House of Representatives after the November election.
According to sources, Democrats plan to use Congress’s powers to hold hearings, issue subpoenas, and obtain documents from companies and financial institutions linked to Trump.
The party believes that large-scale investigations may be more effective than immediately launching impeachment proceedings. Democrats fear that an attempt to remove the president would immediately become the main political battle in Washington, and that Trump would be able to portray himself as a victim of partisan conflict.
Instead, Democrats want to first gather evidence and scrutinize the Trump administration’s decisions, particularly the possible use of presidential powers to benefit the president himself, his allies, or his donors.
“We’re not embarking on this with the goal of impeachment. No one wants the vote to fail on the very first day. The main focus is on gathering evidence through investigations that will allow us to hold Trump accountable,” said one of the Democrats’ senior aides.
According to Reuters, Democrats may focus on U.S. Department of Homeland Security contracts, corporate donors, funding for Trump’s planned White House ballroom, and possible “pay-to-play” schemes.
Separately, they may examine financial structures linked to the president’s family. Specifically, this includes the venture capital firm 1789 Capital, of which Donald Trump Jr. is a partner, as well as possible investments by foreign sovereign wealth funds in entities linked to the president’s family.
Major U.S. companies, including Apple, Alphabet, Palantir, Blackstone, BlackRock, and Elon Musk’s companies—notably Tesla—may also come under scrutiny.
At the same time, there is no definitive list of potential targets for investigation, and no official investigations into the aforementioned companies have been launched at this time.
According to two sources, Democrats have already begun sending requests for information to companies, contractors, and other organizations.
In this way, the party aims to obtain documents in advance that, in the event of an election victory, could form the basis for formal congressional inquiries.
Specifically, the requests concern the media company Paramount Skydance’s interactions with the Trump administration, YouTube and Alphabet’s dealings with the president, contracts between private companies and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as transactions involving Venezuelan oil.
Democratic representatives Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin stated that ongoing investigations could be expanded if the party wins a majority in the House of Representatives.
At the same time, Democrats have not ruled out impeachment proceedings against Trump in the future. According to sources, this could be the next step if the investigations uncover evidence of misconduct sufficient to remove the president from office.
There is already a precedent for such a scenario. During Trump’s first presidential term, the House of Representatives impeached him twice, but the Senate acquitted the president on both occasions.
“If the investigations uncover evidence that, in our view, meets the necessary criteria, we will not hesitate to move forward,” added a senior Democratic aide.
Thus, for now, Democrats are not preparing to immediately launch impeachment proceedings but plan to focus on wide-ranging investigations. Their results could determine further political steps following the November election.
Reuters reports this, citing four sources familiar with the relevant discussions.
The U.S. Senate approved a bill providing temporary funding for the federal government but rejected the Trump administration’s demand to allocate approximately $70 billion for military spending related to Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump has so far been unable to secure a military victory in the war with Iran and has repeatedly backed away from threats of large-scale strikes, citing the possibility of resuming negotiations. The Guardian reports this, citing critics and experts who call such tactics inconsistent.
Despite large-scale U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, its nuclear program has likely not been completely destroyed. According to The New York Times, Tehran may have retained stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, which could potentially be enough to quickly produce up to ten nuclear warheads.
