

 Sections

Democracy Dies in Darkness

 Try 1 month for $1

 Sign In
Thanks for reading. Try one month of unlimited access for $1.
View offer
×


Share on Google Plus

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Google Plus
Share via Email
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest
Share on Tumblr
Resize Text
Print Article
Comments13.2k
Politics

House Democrats demand documents from

more than 80 people and institutions affiliated
with Trump
House Judiciary Committee casts wide net in Trump investigation
By Rachael Bade ,
Karoun Demirjian ,
Ellen Nakashima and
Philip Rucker
March 4 at 8:47 PM
House Democrats’ far-reaching document request seeking information from President Trump’s sons,
his business associates and his political confidants opened a sprawling investigation Monday and
cast a spotlight on the ambitious strategy of the committee with the authority to impeach a president.

The House Judiciary Committee sent more than 80 letters demanding all communications from a
host of controversies surrounding Trump, as the panel probes whether the president and his
administration have engaged in obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power.

But rather than a targeted approach, Monday’s request was broad, reaching current and former
campaign staffers, top Trump Organization officials, even documents and communications of the
National Rifle Association and the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. The inquiry touched
on a wide array of matters, from the president’s business dealings with Russia to the firing of former
FBI director James B. Comey to hush payments made to women. Many of those issues are already
being examined by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and federal prosecutors in the Southern
District of New York — not to mention other committees in the House.

“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,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman
Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “This is a critical time for our nation, and we have a
responsibility to investigate these matters and hold hearings for the public to have all the facts. That
is exactly what we intend to do.”
The extensive scope could bolster claims by Trump and Republicans that congressional Democrats
are seeking to undermine the president and cripple his 2020 reelection effort rather than conduct a
disciplined, fact-finding inquiry.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders criticized the new probe in a statement, saying, “Today,
Chairman Nadler opened up a disgraceful and abusive investigation into tired, false allegations
already investigated by the Special Counsel and committees in both Chambers of Congress.”

At an event at the White House with the North Dakota State University championship football
team, Trump was asked if he plans to cooperate.
“I cooperate all the time with everybody,” he said, adding: “You know the beautiful thing — no
collusion. It’s all a hoax.”

The president also spent the day retweeting his supporters who criticized the document request as
“ridiculous” or called Democrats “sore losers” in the 2016 election.

The vast range of the request raised the specter of unfocused inquiries that could last years and
involve multiple committees competing for witnesses and documents.

“The scope of the Democrats’ race to find something bad on this president is getting more and more
concerning. . . . Where are they willing to stop? I don’t know what they’re trying to do or where
they’re trying to go,” said Rep. Douglas A. Collins (Ga.), the top Republican on the Judiciary
Committee.

At the White House, Trump and his aides vowed publicly to cooperate with the congressional
oversight and review the request from Nadler. Privately, however, advisers dismissed the request as
clear overreach and were preparing to push back against the committee’s demands. One aide
described Nadler’s request as a political ploy orchestrated to cover ground that already has been trod
by other investigations, including Mueller’s probe of Russian election interference.
The White House has been preparing for aggressive congressional oversight for several months,
adding more than a dozen lawyers, including some with experience working for congressional
Republicans, to the White House Counsel’s Office this year.

The Trump team’s emerging strategy, which is being overseen by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone
— with input from White House lawyer Emmet Flood, who has been leading the White House’s
response to the Mueller investigation — is to focus on limiting the scope of investigations and
preserving legal protections for the president.

The strategy includes asserting executive privilege whenever White House lawyers feel it is necessary
to preserve confidentiality, but their first instinct is to be cooperative in responding to requests when
warranted, according to people with knowledge of internal discussions who spoke on the condition of
anonymity.

Democrats, meanwhile, say they’re ready to subpoena the information if needed, all but ensuring an
intergovernmental clash in the coming weeks. Recipients — be they individuals, companies or
government agencies — have two weeks to comply with the requests. Should they fail to do so, the
panel will compel the information forcefully, a committee lawyer told reporters on a call Monday
morning.

For months, House Democrats said they would look to Mueller’s findings to determine whether to
proceed with impeachment hearings. But Nadler’s request demonstrates that Democrats are
preparing to probe well beyond Russia’s interference in the election.

Those receiving letters from the House Judiciary Committee include the president’s two eldest sons,
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; his former personal secretary and
senior vice president of the Trump Organization, Rhona Graff; Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial
officer of the Trump Organization; and former top White House aides Hope Hicks, Sean Spicer and
Stephen K. Bannon.

Other demands for documents have been directed to institutions including the White House, the
Justice Department, the Trump campaign, the Trump presidential transition team and the Trump
Organization.

Nadler has said that the FBI probe is but a piece of Democrats’ oversight puzzle. And Judiciary
Committee staff members said the requests underscored lawmakers’ determination to hold Trump
and those around him accountable for an array of controversies that have dogged the president
during his first two years in office — and perhaps lay the grounds for impeachment proceedings.

Dismissing criticism, Nadler told CNN, “We’re simply exercising our oversight jurisdiction.”

Still, the missives raised questions about the scope of Democrats’ inquiry, as well as which
Democratic-led committees would be charged with investigating which controversies. About half a
dozen House committees are probing Trump in some capacity. But while the chairmen meet
regularly and have tried to pick lanes, they keep bumping into one another, overlap that could create
problems in the future.

Hours after Nadler’s letters went public, for example, the chairmen of three committees asked acting
White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for any documents on
Trump’s interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Nadler’s inquiries sought the same
information.
A former assistant counsel on the Watergate investigation, speaking on the condition of anonymity
to talk frankly, said it was tough to discern House Democrats’ strategy given the volume of the
information they are seeking.

“I don’t know if they’re looking more to get into a confrontation or whether they’re actually looking
for information,” the person said. “This is a lot of material. . . . You have to prioritize and decide what
is most important and the best prospects of yielding something that is important and relevant.”

The individual added: “How do they go through all that material and even remember what they are
looking for? . . . It’s a kitchen-sink kind of request that lawyers tend to use in cases where they know
stuff is there, but they’re not quite sure where it is or what it is.”

A House Judiciary aide acknowledged overlap among document requests by the various House
committees conducting investigations. But panel staff and leaders are huddling regularly to share
notes and deconflict, the source said. Over time, the aide said, different committees will take the lead
on certain issues. And Judiciary intends to share its document findings with the relevant panels, one
committee staffer said.

[House Judiciary chairman says he will launch probe of Trump’s ‘abuse of

power’]
“The important thing is that the investigations are staying out of each other’s way and we’re also
helping each other,” the aide said.

Phil Schiliro, who worked under former Oversight and Reform Committee chairman Henry
Waxman (D-Calif.) and in President Barack Obama’s White House, said the panel is “approaching it
the right way” and “not getting ahead of the facts.” The sheer number of the scandals encompassing
the White House justifies the long list of requests, he argued. “No Congress — no group of reporters
— has ever had to deal with something like this before,” he said.
The inquiries encompass issues from the campaign’s data operation and Cambridge Analytica to
Michael Cohen’s post-election consulting contract with Columbus Nova, a U.S.-based
investment vehicle for Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. They include requests about well-
known episodes, like the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and a
Russian lawyer, and far-less-covered incidents, such as a 2016 effort by Peter Smith, a now-deceased
Chicago-based Republican fundraiser, to reach out to Russian hackers to get copies of Hillary
Clinton’s deleted emails.
Inquiries also went out to Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale; former 2016 campaign
officials such as Corey Lewandowski; former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus; and former
White House counsel Donald McGahn. Nadler also asked American Media Inc. and its chief
executive, David Pecker, a longtime Trump ally, about hush payments or “any payment” made by
Cohen, then Trump’s personal lawyer, to assist Trump during the campaign. Nadler asked AMI as
well about any times in recent years it has had to “catch and kill” an unflattering story or allegation
about Trump — a term for keeping such a story buried.

The committee said Monday’s tranche of requests would not be the last, suggesting that
investigations by House Democrats could become broader still with time. For instance, panel staffers
expect that Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump will receive a document request in the coming weeks.
She did not receive one Monday.

Judiciary Committee staff argue that there is a constitutional question about whether the party can
hold Trump accountable for any illicit or morally questionable activities he may have committed
before he became president.
 Rosalind S. Helderman, John Wagner and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost

13.2k

Comments
Rachael BadeRachael Bade is a Congress reporter for The Washington Post, primarily focusing on
the House. Her coverage areas include House Democrats’ oversight of the Trump administration as
well as policy clashes with the White House, the dynamics animating the historic freshman class and
the inner workings of the Democratic leadership team. Follow

Karoun DemirjianKaroun Demirjian is a congressional reporter covering national security, including

defense, foreign policy, intelligence and matters concerning the judiciary. She was previously a
correspondent based in The Post's bureau in Moscow. Follow

Ellen NakashimaEllen Nakashima is a national security reporter for The Washington Post. She
covers cybersecurity, surveillance, counterterrorism and intelligence issues. She has also served as a
Southeast Asia correspondent and covered the White House and Virginia state politics. She joined
The Post in 1995. Follow

Philip RuckerPhilip Rucker is the White House Bureau Chief for The Washington Post. He
previously has covered Congress, the Obama White House, and the 2012 and 2016 presidential
campaigns. Rucker also is a Political Analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He joined The Post in
2005 as a local news reporter. Follow

The story must be told.

Your subscription supports journalism that matters.
Try 1 month for $1
Most Read Politics


Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb calls Mueller an ‘American hero’ and ‘class act’

2
 House Democrats demand documents from more than 80 people and institutions affiliated
with Trump

T-Mobile acknowledges its patronage of Trump’s Washington hotel increased sharply after
announcement of merger with Sprint

White House works to limit GOP defections, criticism ahead of vote to nullify Trump’s
emergency declaration


5

AnalysisPower Up: Cracks show in wall of Republican support for Trump

Latest episode
A surge in border crossings that wouldn’t be solved by a wall
Listen24:46
Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you’ve come to expect from the
newsroom of The Post -- for your ears.
 washingtonpost.com
 © 1996-2019 The Washington Post

 Help and Contact Us
 Policies and Standards
 Terms of Service
 Privacy Policy
 Print Products Terms of Sale
 Digital Products Terms of Sale
 Submissions and Discussion Policy
 RSS Terms of Service
 Ad Choices