What will Democrats do if they win the midterm elections in November? Paul Blumenthal published two scoops this week that gave us some big clues. First, he revealed the 52 Trump probes Dems are planning. Then, he broke the news that Dems plan to get Trump's tax returns as soon as they have the power to do so. We asked him about the stories.
How did these stories come about?
I haven't seen a lot of talk about what would happen if Congress actually did real oversight of the Trump administration. There's a big difference between reporters filing FOIAs and working sources and actual subpoena power. So I asked the oversight committee Democrats what they would do. I also asked Rep. Pascrell and other Democrats who had introduced resolutions to get Trump's tax returns whether they would push such a resolution if they have the votes to pass it.
What will be the biggest challenge Democrats face in investigating Trump if they do win back the House? How can they juggle 52 investigations?
First, those 52 subpoenas are only what one committee will investigate. The other committees will also be able to look into what's going on in agencies in their jurisdiction. Second, some of these subpoenas cover overlapping subject matter and can be combined into more focused investigations. I think there's a lot of bandwidth for investigating this administration. What matters is if leadership lets the committees drive the process.
If you had to pick one thing to investigate Trump on, what would it be?
His business. He's the only president to continue to profit from a business empire while in office. There is no doubt he is receiving money from people who want to influence his administration. Specifically you'd want to look at his hotel and who is paying him there, who goes to his resorts and golf courses and then who he has done business with overseas. His foreign operations from Canada to Scotland to Georgia to Azerbaijan are all incredibly shady. We don't know who underwrote the debt for these projects.
You've followed a lot of congressional investigations over the years. What's the most important thing for readers to keep in mind about them?
A lot goes on behind the scenes that isn't readily apparent in televised hearings. You hear people complain about grandstanding for the cameras but you need to pay attention to the document requests that will ultimately make their way to the press or be used for a particular line of questioning.
What do you want readers to take away from these stories?
One of the big complaints of the Trump era, so far, is that stories fly by and then everyone is distracted by the next shiny thing. This is the "he's distracting us" fear that you hear from Democratic voters. I think that's overwrought. Although this is partly a function of the immediacy of online media, it's also because Congress has spent zero time and effort to drill down into the stories that zip by. If no one with subpoena power is investigating how Commerce decided to add a citizenship question to the census or why the EPA is loosening regulations on asbestos or why Interior is selling off public lands for oil extraction, it is very hard to move these stories forward in a way that increases media and public attention. This is an important power that Congress has to affect policy and public awareness. It is not currently using it. These stories indicate a small slice of how Democrats would use congressional power if they had the votes to do so.
