With two months until the midterm elections, Democrats are laying the groundwork to launch far-reaching investigations into the Trump administration and preparing for high-stakes court battles if they win control of the House of Representatives in November.
Donald Trump’s war with Iran, his White House ballroom project, his family’s business dealings and the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files will be among the top targets of investigations if Democrats take back the House, according to conversations with over a dozen Democratic lawmakers and aides.
Democrats don’t want to squander the opportunity to act as a check on Trump if they reclaim the majority and say they have learned a lot since the last time the party controlled the House while Trump was in office. Few say they are interested in launching an impeachment process on day one, and many instead are eyeing a new tool that would be at their disposal to try to quickly compel the testimony and documents they seek: lawsuits.
It’s not a bad strategy given the limited power they will have. So far, the only checks on Trump’s power grabs have been the courts, and the GOP led House has been completely compliant with Trump’s wishes. The administration has lost hundreds of lawsuits so far, and the DoJ is increasingly seen as a vassel agency bending to Donald’s whims.
Impeachment and removal would only move JD Vance into the top spot. That’s probably worse. Lawsuits and investigations, with the goal of stopping the Trump administration in it’s tracks, recovering stolen funds, and restoring the power of Congress to it’s traditional level is a good interim step. Then after the GOP loses the Executive Branch, the real work of ferreting out the criminals and identifying those responsible for war crimes, can begin.