US President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the weekend. Photo / AP
House Democrats sent more than 80 letters today demanding documents from family members, business associates, political confidants and others with connections to US President Donald Trump.
They are opening a sprawling investigation of whether he and his Administration have engaged in obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power.
The farthest-reaching request since Democrats took control of the House underscored lawmakers' determination to hold Trump and those around him accountable for controversies that have dogged the President during his first two years in office - and perhaps lay the grounds for impeachment proceedings.
"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, said.
"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."
But the sweeping document requests also raised immediate questions about House Democrats' strategy for probing the Administration.
The inquiries touched on everything from the President's business dealings with Russia to multiple controversies regarding the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and hush payments made to women.
Many of those very issues are already being looked at by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and prosecutors in the Southern District of New York - not to mention other committees in the House.
House Democrats also appear to be grappling with a question of whether to focus their energy on Trump's actions as president, or probe alleged past misdeeds before he ran for office, too.
Judiciary Committee staff argue there is a constitutional question about whether the party can hold the President accountable for any illicit or morally questionable activities Trump may have committed before he became president.
Democratic chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees demand all documents pertaining to Trump's in-person meetings and calls with Vladimir Putin.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 4, 2019
Letter to the White House: https://t.co/vQPckiuZJI
Letter to State Dept: https://t.co/oqeVtbtZKQ
While extremely broad, Nadler's inquiry focuses on abuse of power, public corruption and obstruction of justice since Trump became president, though some of the inquiries also deal with the campaign and the presidential transition.
At an event at the White House with the North Dakota State 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."
Those receiving letters from the House Judiciary Committee include the President's two eldest sons, Donald Trump jnr and Eric Trump; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; his former personal secretary Rhona Graff; Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organisation; and former top White House aides Hope Hicks, Sean Spicer and Steve Bannon.
Other demands for documents are directed to institutions including the White House, the Justice Department, the Trump campaign, the Trump transition team and the Trump Organisation.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders acknowledged receipt of Nadler's letter and said officials "will review it and respond at the appropriate time." She did not comment further.
.@AOC: "While [President Trump's] talking collusion, collusion, collusion, I think, in Oversight, we should be talking about taxes, taxes, taxes, and his bank account, his bank account, his bank account. His financial statements, statements, statements." pic.twitter.com/dzyr9qhZJN
— The Hill (@thehill) March 4, 2019
Recipients have two weeks to comply with the requests. Should they not do so, the Judiciary Committee will subpoena the documents, panel staff members told reporters.
Trump and Republicans have pushed back, arguing Democrats are on a fishing expedition designed to undermine the President and cripple his re-election effort ahead of 2020.
During a two-hour, campaign-style speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump mocked Democrats for the scope of their investigations.
"[T]hey don't have anything with Russia. There's no collusion," Trump said. "So now they go and morph into, 'Let's inspect every deal he's ever done. We're going to go into his finances. We're going to check his deals.' . . . These people are sick. They're sick . . . Where did that come from?"
The committee also said today's tranche of requests would not be the last, suggesting investigations by House Democrats could become broader still with time. The panel says it will seek not only Mueller's final report but also documents used in the grand jury.
Nadler's request is significant not only because he is seeking an expansive amount of material but because his committee has jurisdiction over impeachment. Any hearings exploring whether Trump committed "high crimes and misdemeanors" would take place before the panel.
NEW: The 81 people/entities House Judiciary sent document requests to this morning is "just the first wave," a committee source told me. Another source described it as just the "first steps."
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) March 4, 2019
"The committee will continue to make news as the weeks go on." https://t.co/HFq36I66wq
The panel is seeking communications between former White House counsel Donald McGahn and the President relating to Michael Flynn, Trump's fired national security adviser, as well as Flynn's statements to the FBI about contacts with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia's ambassador to Washington.
Nadler is also seeking to learn about communications regarding Trump's firing of Comey as FBI Director, as well as what occurred at a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York. That meeting included Trump jnr Kushner, then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who had "dirt" to offer about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, according to an email that was made public.
Nadler has also asked American Media Inc. and its chief executive, David Pecker, a longtime Trump ally, about hush payments or "any payment" that Michael Cohen, then Trump's personal lawyer, made to assist Trump during the campaign.
The documents Nadler requested are a first step in the committee's effort to explore possible obstruction of justice by the President in connection with Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and whether Trump or anyone close to him coordinated with the Russians during the campaign.
The committee staff coordinated the document request with Mueller's office, federal prosecutors in Manhattan (SDNY) and other committees conducting their own investigations, a House counsel said.
This morning's required reading for understanding how we got here is the New Yorker's @JaneMayerNYer on the history of Fox News. https://t.co/NdIkaDRSaR Your quibbles with it don't matter. (I have a few.) It clarifies. Not recommended, required.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) March 4, 2019
Committee counsel said the chairman is requesting materials that in many cases already have been furnished to Mueller or federal prosecutors in Manhattan or to other congressional panels. Many of the recipients' lawyers have already been contacted and are expected to provide the materials, the counsel said.
Though the document demands are sweeping and appear to track over Mueller's probe, a committee counsel said the panel's jurisdiction squarely covers obstruction of justice and abuse of power issues.
The House Intelligence panel, by contrast, is investigating Russian interference and counterintelligence matters, the counsel noted. But there inevitably will be some overlap. And Judiciary will share documents it receives with other committees, the counsel said.
Aides said the panel is exploring two other broad issues: public corruption and abuse of power.
The investigation of public corruption includes potential violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits presidents from accepting gifts from foreign states, as well as possible campaign finance violations. Potential abuses of power include attacks on the news media and the judiciary, and the use of presidential pardon power, Judiciary Committee aides said.
Mariah Carey’s ex-manager is suing Felix Sater for more than $1 million, alleging he hacked her computers/phones while they were dating and writing scripts about the Russian Mafia. Sater, a career criminal, was the Trump family's partner on the Trump Soho https://t.co/oyhtUrvaB0
— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) March 4, 2019
Nadler's requests come as House Democrats are ramping up numerous investigations of the president, their first steps in a months-long effort that could lead to impeachment proceedings.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee received testimony from Cohen last week in a high-profile hearing where he accused Trump of lying to the public about his business interests in Russia, his role in silencing women who alleged sexual encounters during the 2016 campaign and his knowledge of WikiLeaks's hacked material that was damaging to Clinton.
The oversight panel also has given the White House until Tuesday to respond to document requests surrounding its clearance process, some of which panel Democrats have been seeking for months.
The latest letter followed news that Trump had personally instructed his then-Chief of Staff John Kelly to give Kushner a security clearance.
At the same time, the House Ways and Means Committee has created a framework for requesting Trump's tax returns. Although the tax panel has not asked for the documents yet, lawyers for the committee have instructed other panels to help make the case to the public about why the forms are essential to investigating the President.
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