Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Panel’s 80 requests seek files on Trump
WASHINGTON — House Democrats sent more than 80 letters Monday demanding documents from family members, business associates, political confidants and others with connections to President Donald Trump, opening a sprawling investigation of whether he and his administration have engaged in obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power.
“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.”
Nadler was explicit in saying the House is no longer content to await the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller and will delve into many of the same issues, but with a different standard of evidence not wedded to a criminal indictment.
But the sweeping document
requests also raised questions about House Democrats’ strategy for investigating the administration. The inquiries touched on a variety of issues, including the president’s business dealings with Russia, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and hush payments made to women. Many of those issues are already being looked at by 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 investigate alleged misdeeds from before he ran for office.
At an event at the White House on Monday with the North Dakota State championship football team, Trump was asked whether 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.”
In another instance Monday, Trump dismissed the Nadler investigation and others as futile efforts “in search of a crime.”
“Ridiculous!” he exclaimed on Twitter.
Late Monday, Attorney General William Barr said he won’t recuse himself from being in charge of Mueller’s investigation. During his confirmation hearing in January,
Barr refused to say whether he’d recuse himself from overseeing Mueller.
“Following General Barr’s confirmation, senior career ethics officials advised that General Barr should not recuse himself from the special counsel’s investigation. Consistent with that advice, General Barr has decided not to recuse,” said Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokesman.
Critics questioned Barr’s ability to be in charge of Mueller because he sent an unsolicited memo to White House lawyers last year criticizing the special counsel for looking into Trump’s firing of Comey as possible obstruction of justice.
Barr also revealed during his confirmation hearing that he spoke to Trump about Mueller and his investigation in 2017, when Trump was looking for personal legal representation.
Under Justice Department regulations, the attorney general has sole authority over Mueller and has the power to decide how much of Mueller’s final report is provided to Congress and made public. The president repeatedly criticized and ridiculed his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself based on his role in Trump’s campaign. Trump removed Sessions in November.
DOCUMENT REQUESTS
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 Rhona Graff; Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization; and former top White House aides Hope Hicks, Sean Spicer and Steve Bannon.
In addition to Nadler, Democratic chairmen of the Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees wrote to the White House and State Department to request detailed documentation related to Trump’s communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin and reported efforts to conceal aspects of those communications. In addition to document requests, the committees are asking to interview interpreters who sat in on meetings, including a one-on-one session in Helsinki last summer.
In a statement Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders acknowledged receipt of Nadler’s letter and said officials “will review it and respond at the appropriate time.” She did not comment further.
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 on a call Monday morning.
Trump and Republicans have argued that Democrats are on a fishing expedition designed to undermine the president and cripple his re-election effort ahead of 2020.
Nadler’s committee also said Monday’s requests would not be the last. The panel said 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 also because his committee has jurisdiction over impeachment.
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, Russia’s former 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 Jr., Kushner, then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who claimed to have “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 committee staff coordinated the document request with Mueller’s office; federal prosecutors in Manhattan, N.Y.; and other committees conducting their own investigations, a House counsel said. A committee counsel said the chairman is requesting materials that in many cases already have been furnished to Mueller, federal prosecutors
in Manhattan or other congressional panels.
Although the document demands are sweeping, a committee counsel said the panel’s jurisdiction squarely covers obstruction of justice and abuse of power issues. The House Intelligence Committee, by contrast, is investigating Russian interference and counterintelligence matters, the counsel noted. But there inevitably will be some overlap. The House Judiciary Committee will share documents it receives with other committees, the counsel said.
Aides said the panel is exploring the broad issues of public corruption and abuse of power.