Democrats are expected to take back Congress in the midterm elections and Republicans are already plotting a preemptive strike ahead of that takeover to protect the White House.
President Donald Trump’s scandals are stacking up, from the files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, the push for a $1.8 billion slush fund, the bulldozing of the East Wing of the White House, the funding for the East Wing of the White House, the Kennedy Center debacle and a slew of other money-making schemes.
Semafor reported Thursday that one way Republicans could hit back is by conducting their own parallel investigations.
“Doing so would amount to an unusual assertion of power from the House minority, which historically has almost no ability to enforce any of its own investigative requests,” reporter Nicholas Wu conceded.
James Mandolfo, a law firm partner who handled the GOP’s investigation of then-President Joe Biden’s family said, “If the Democrats take the House in November, the Republican minority will be among the strongest in history because they likely will have the Trump administration backing them on core issues that they remain aligned on.”
Normally, the committees would have no power to enforce subpoenas or make demands to cooperate with a private GOP investigation. Mandolfo suggested Trump get his Justice Department involved and use the power of the federal government to go after anyone who refuses to do what he wants.
“The Trump administration could take action against those companies/institutions that don’t comply with any requests from the minority,” said Mandolfo.
It’s unclear what would happen if such individuals fought back in court.
Semafor explained that such a plan doesn’t solve a problem Republicans could continue to face: division within their own party.
“There was friction between some Oversight Committee Republicans and the Justice Department earlier this Congress, after the GOP-controlled panel voted to subpoena then-Attorney General Pam Bondi in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation,” the report said.
The Democratic investigations will likely be conducted within each congressional committee, but there could also be special investigative committees, similar to the Jan. 6 committee.