Democrats In Congress Launch Sweeping Investigation Into Donald Trump's World

A congressional panel has launched a sweeping new probe of President Donald Trump, his White House, his campaign and his businesses.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on Monday sent document requests to 81 agencies, entities and individuals close to Trump as part of a broad investigation into possible obstruction of justice, public corruption and other abuses of power.

The list includes Trump’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, as well as his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

It also names dozens of current and former members of Trump’s administration, inaugural committee, his businesses and his campaign.

The letters piggyback off of the preexisting investigations, including one being run by Robert Mueller’s special counsel office.

They inform recipients that, in the interest of speeding up the process, they can limit their production to documents they already turned over in response to those investigations.

“We have sent these document requests in order to begin building the public record,” sad Jerry Nadler, a Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, in a statement.

“The Special Counsel’s office and the Southern District of New York are aware that we are taking these steps. We will act quickly to gather this information, assess the evidence, and follow the facts where they lead with full transparency with the American people.”

The probe will focus on three main areas: whether Trump obstructed justice by interfering in criminal investigations of his campaign and administration, whether he violated the emoluments clauses of the US Constitution and campaign finance laws, and potential misuse of his pardon powers and other abuses of power.

By launching the investigation, Democrats are effectively ensuring Trump’s long litany of scandals will remain in the news throughout and up to the 2020 presidential election, including his firing of former FBI Director James Comey, his alleged involvement in a hush money scheme, the dealings of the Trump Foundation, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with foreign officials, to name just a few.

Some people on the list are likely to invoke executive privilege in response to requests for sensitive documents from their time in the White House, including possibly former White House counsel Don McGahn and former top White House communications aide Hope Hicks

Those who received document requests from the committee have been told to respond by no later than March 18, though some are expected to fight the request and force a possible subpoena.

The committee, for example, asks Hicks to produce “any personal or work diary, journal, or other book containing notes, a record or a description of daily events” related to her long time spent working for Trump prior to and after his election in 2016.

The request to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, on the other hand, asks him to produce documents pertaining to his “possible resignation or firing” as well as “any conversation in which President Trump stated, in words or substance, that he wanted the Mueller investigation shut down”.

Michael Cohen, the president’s longtime lawyer who testified before the House oversight committee last week, is asked to produce “any audio or video recordings of any conversation with or relating to the Trump Campaign, Donald Trump or his Business Interests from June 2015 to the present”.