Axios reports that the incoming House Democratic Majority is preparing a “subpoena cannon” which could investigate dozens of issues stretching back to Trump’s first months in office:
One senior Democratic source said the new majority, which takes power in January, is preparing a “subpoena cannon,” like an arena T-shirt cannon…
Incoming House Appropriations Chair Nita Lowey of New York, a close ally of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, said “yes” to each of a long list of possible investigative targets, including the Space Force, hurricane relief in Puerto Rico, White House security clearances, White House use of personal email and more…
So look for probes of James Comey’s firing; Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ ouster; the Muslim travel ban; family separation policy at the border; discussions of classified information at Mar-a-Lago; administration dealings with North Korea and Saudi Arabia; and so much more.
Another report at Axios has put together a list of 85 potential targets for House investigators.
In addition, there are signs that the Democrats’ official reluctance to embrace impeachment is coming to an end. While Maxine Waters and some back-benchers have been pushing the I-word since before Trump was even inaugurated, Pelosi has remained cool to the idea, at least in public. But now that the election is over, the truth can be told:
Top Democrats, who had largely avoided the subject during the campaign, now tell us they plan to almost immediately begin exploring possible grounds for impeachment. A public report by Robert Mueller would ignite the kindling.
Tom Steyer, the liberal activist who spent more than $100 million during the campaign to build support for impeachment, said establishment leaders who are trying to postpone talk of impeachment are “the outliers”: “80% of registered Democrats think … we’re right.”
In fact, one of the goals of the incoming Dem majority is to help prop up Mueller’s investigation and, if possible, get him to extend it. Last month, Politico pointed out that people hoping for an explosive ending to the Mueller investigation were likely to be disappointed. There’s no telling whether Mueller will write a lengthy report covering everything he knows and even if he does, there’s no guarantee that report will ever become public.
In the clip below, Judge Andrew Napolitano suggests the goal here is to run shadow investigations of whatever Mueller is doing. The advantage, for Democrats, is that they can leak whatever they choose to out of their own parallel investigations, making sure material they feel is damaging gets out to the media even if Mueller himself refuses to put it out there.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member