Source: NBC News
WASHINGTON — Democrats poised to take control of the House in January are building a strategy for investigating the Trump administration on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues and how they may intersect with the president’s business empire. Yet the most powerful tool at their disposal — a congressional subpoena — is being held in reserve for the short term, multiple Democratic congressional officials involved in the decision-making tell NBC News.
Top lawmakers, aides and former congressional officials warn that subpoena power, while potentially a valuable tool for extracting information, is hardly a magic wand. That’s likely to be especially true now, if the Trump administration challenges Democratic-led inquiries as is widely expected.
Rather than begin with what one congressional aide referred to as a “T-shirt cannon” approach of firing off multiple subpoenas immediately, key committees are planning a more deliberate approach, the officials involved say. It will start with targeted requests for information from Trump officials, in some cases directed at lower-level bureaucrats who might be more likely to comply.
Senior aides on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, for instance, are combing through dozens of requests already made of the Trump administration to determine what they might seek again. They include issues often pressed by committee members of both parties, like the use of chartered aircraft by cabinet officials, how security clearances are issued to White House staff, and the use of private email by senior officials.
Dec. 16, 201800:43
And Democrats remain mindful that because of constitutional questions like executive authority and the separation of powers, subpoena showdowns between previous administrations and opposition Congresses often took years to litigate, in some cases resolving only after the White House had already changed hands.
“The question is, how do you enforce these subpoenas?” said Irvin Nathan, who served as the top lawyer for House Democrats the last time they controlled the chamber. “You have to pick your targets. You have to prioritize and focus on the ones you really need, and where you can win public approval.”
Democrats eager to move forward with what they consider a long-overdue examination of President Donald Trump’s policies on issues like immigration, Russia and the administration’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act also want to take advantage of a perhaps brief window to move forward with legislation the president might support.
“What we are interested in is meeting the needs of America’s working families, to spend our time lowering healthcare costs by reducing the cost of prescription drugs, increasing paychecks by building infrastructure of America — both of those things are things the president said he wanted to do,” incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.
But progressive activists are eager for a showdown, hoping that with Democrats wielding power to try and compel documents and witness testimony, they can get immediate answers to questions about the intersection of policy decisions with Trump’s personal finances.
The House Judiciary Committee has identified five priority areas for oversight that will probably initially take the form of multiple hearings in which administration officials are invited to testify. And the House Intelligence Committee is expected to resume the probe of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election to include areas that the current GOP majority declined to explore, including a deeper examination of what financial leverage Russian entities may have had over Trump.
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