Dems to put heat on Trump
WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee’s new Democratic leadership will scrutinize “credible reports of money laundering and financial compromise” involving the businesses of President Donald Trump and those closest to him, the panel’s chairman said Wednesday, one of several priorities as lawmakers open a fresh investigation into the president’s alleged Russia ties.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-calif., outlined a five-point plan for the committee’s investigation, encompassing everything from Russia’s election interference to the question of whether foreign governments have leverage over Trump, his relatives or associates. Schiff indicated that the panel uncovered evidence of such Schiff
vulnerabilities while under Republican leadership but neglected to pursue it.
“For the last two years, the Republican majority has essentially been missing in action when it comes to being a co-equal branch of government,” Schiff said Wednesday, promising that Democrats are “not going to be intimidated or threatened” by Trump’s warnings against the Democrat-led investigations. “That ended with the midterms. We’re going to do our jobs.”
But not without pushback from Trump, who railed Wednesday against the idea of Schiff pursuing an investigation into his finances, calling him a “political hack” and accusing him of “presidential harassment.”
“Under what basis would he do that? He has no basis to do that,” Trump told reporters when asked about Schiff’s plans to expand the scope of the House Intelligence Committee’s probe. “No other politician has to go through that. It’s called presidential harassment. And it’s unfortunate. And it really does hurt our country.”
The committee acted just hours after a defiant Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that the House would not be cowed by the president’s “all-out threat” to drop its investigations of his administration.
“It’s our congressional responsibility, and if we didn’t do it, we would be delinquent in that,” Pelosi said of the House’s oversight role, just hours after Trump used his State of the Union address to warn that “ridiculous partisan investigations” threatened the nation’s economic health and the prospects of bipartisan legislation.
That, Pelosi said, “was a threat; it was an all-out threat.”
The Intelligence Committee published its investigative plan after members voted unanimously to give special counsel Robert Mueller copies of all the interviews the committee conducted during its Gop-led probe. Democrats have long questioned whether some witnesses lied to lawmakers during those interviews, and they plan to make obstruction of justice another focus of their probe.
In the meantime, members have said, they think Mueller is best equipped to determine who is telling the truth.
The committee heard testimony from more than 50 witnesses, including the president’s son and son-in-law, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, and others close to the president and deeply knowledgeable about his campaign and business dealings.
Schiff told reporters that the transcripts include material that the special counsel’s office has not seen previously. Mueller “will now have access to those transcripts for any purpose that will facilitate justice,” Schiff said.
The panel has previously released select transcripts to the special counsel, including that of Trump’s longtime friend Roger Stone and Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.
Perhaps most personally for the president, a Ways and Means oversight subcommittee will hold its first hearing Thursday to start building a public rationale to pursue Trump’s tax returns. An obscure provision in the federal tax code gives the chairman of the committee unilateral powers to request from the Treasury Department tax information on any filer, including the president.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, said Trump has to understand “that he has to be accountable.”
“It’s not about partisan investigations,” said Cummings. “We all have to be accountable. And it’s a new day.”
The Democrats’ agenda goes beyond oversight of Trump’s administration and Russian election interference to the bread-and-butter issues of jobs, health care and the economy. Pelosi said they still hope to work with the White House on shared priorities, particularly on lowering prescription-drug costs and investing in infrastructure.
On Wednesday, one House committee held a hearing on gun violence. Two others gaveled in to address climate change. And three more were debating protecting people with pre-existing medical conditions and the Affordable Care Act.
The Foreign Affairs Committee was debating the war in Yemen and a war powers resolution to halt U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led coalition.
This month, Democrats expect to pass H.R. 1, a sweeping reform of campaignfinance and voting-rights laws, and then turn to legislation to expand background checks for sales and transfers of firearms.
The likely result is that the Democrats’ legislative agenda sets the stage for the next election, in 2020, when voters will be assessing not only the performance of the new House majority but also which party they prefer in the White House.