‘Hold them accountable for every grift & rip-off’: Dems plan investigations into Trump business ties

[0:00] Congressional Democrats are already gearing up to take on the Trump administration if they win back control of the House of Representatives this November. [0:08] Instead of trying to impeach him immediately, four people familiar with discussions told Reuters that House Democrats are developing a broad investigative strategy to target companies and financial firms with ties to the president. [0:22] Reuters writes, quote, Democrats are expected to examine Department of Homeland Security contracts financing for Trump's planned White House ballroom, corporate donors and alleged pay to play arrangements. [0:34] Two sources said. Two sources also told Reuters that House Democrats have already started laying the groundwork for possible investigations. [0:42] They write, quote, Party leaders are sending letters to companies, contractors and other organizations connected to potential investigations. [0:51] The requests seek records and pave the way for subpoenas if Democrats win the House. [0:57] Now, I want to point out that all this reflects reporting from our own Jackie Alemany from February. [1:06] Come on. She reported that Democrats were, quote, threatening future investigations of companies that have curried favor with the administration. [1:13] Get that what all this reporting shows is a desire to hold President Trump accountable, [1:19] which is especially dire now that his former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, is officially confirmed as Attorney General of the United States yesterday. [1:30] Joining us now, Maryland Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. [1:36] Congressman Raskin, as always, thank you for coming to the weekend. [1:41] I want to read something to you from The New York Times yesterday by by Glenn Thrush. [1:46] The headline is In Confirming Blanche, Senators Endorse a Justice Department Under Trump's Sway. [1:52] Mr. Blanche's confirmation in the predawn hours of Saturday was largely symbolic. [1:57] As acting attorney general, he could have served indefinitely, but it represented a powerful endorsement by Congress of the philosophy that has guided him under a meddling, demanding boss. [2:07] That he has a constitutional obligation to execute every lawful White House order, even if it shatters longstanding policy and rule of law norms or contradicts what he thinks is right. [2:21] Congressman Raskin, in that entire thing I just read you, the thing that jumped out at me was that he has a constitutional obligation to execute every lawful White House order. [2:33] I would argue he's already been given some unlawful White House orders that he's executed. [2:41] Well, they believe it's lawful just because the president uttered the dictate in the first place. [2:48] And everything that Todd Blanche has done indicates that he will follow Donald Trump 100 percent. [2:54] He's covered up the Epstein files, totally violating the actual text of the statute that Congress passed. [3:03] He has done everything he can to implement Donald Trump's utterly lawless $1.8 billion political slush fund. [3:11] And then the self-pardon that he dealt to himself, his family and his businesses so that they can't be prosecuted for any tax crimes or any other crimes or any other civil violations they've committed up until this point. [3:25] Essentially, they've taken Donald Trump's personal attorney and they've made him Donald Trump's personal attorney general. [3:32] And he serves one guy and he doesn't serve the American people and he doesn't serve the government of the United States and he doesn't serve the rule of law. [3:42] So we're going to continue to beat them in court and beat them in Congress whenever we can. [3:47] The last week or two have been great. [3:48] You know, we had a court dismiss the charges against my constituent, Davey Hearn, who had dipped his hand in the water at the reflecting pool and suddenly became the fall guy for Donald Trump's absurd mismanagement and waste of tens of millions of dollars of the taxpayers money at the reflecting pool, which we call the straight of warm ooze. [4:11] We won a case related to Donald Trump's bulldozing of the East Wing of the White House. [4:21] It's totally up to Congress to control federal property and renovations to federal property, not to the president. [4:28] And we've been shutting him down there and just won another two to one federal circuit court opinion in the district court in the circuit court for the District of Columbia about that. [4:39] And, you know, even even on voting, everybody's flipped out because Donald Trump is trying to procure and obtain the voter rolls across the country from the states. [4:51] And Donald Trump just lost, I think, his 19th straight case related to his efforts to do that. [4:57] The president has no role in the management of elections and all of that is just a completely lawless power grab. [5:03] So we're going to continue to assert the rule of law at every turn with our allies in civil society and attorneys general across the country. [5:12] We're going to keep fighting back. And, yeah, we've been trying to gather gather as much information as possible about all of the scams, all of the corrupt ripoffs that have been taking place. [5:23] And if and when we get the gavels back, we will be able to pursue those investigations with the power of the subpoena. [5:32] Congressman, we had gone an hour and 36 minutes before someone said ooze on this show. [5:37] And I thought that was really good. [5:40] Straight and warm ooze. [5:42] Disgusting. [5:42] I'm going to keep that. [5:43] I'm going to shift gears a little bit from Blanche and the DOJ to what Democrats are planning in the House, if you guys take over. [5:55] This is a Reuters headline. [5:57] Democrats plan Trump investigations over impeachment if they win the House. [6:02] Democrats expect the White House to fight or ignore requests aimed at the executive branch, making companies, contractors and financial firms working with the administration an important route for obtaining information. [6:12] The sources said this is something that Jackie, as Jonathan said, had already reported that they were going to be you guys were going to be utilizing other avenues, being more creative because the Trump administration, it was not in any way, shape or form going to engage with you. [6:30] There's her headline there from February 14th when you I was talking to a Democrat the other day and they were saying that they believe that people want both investigations and impeachment. [6:43] And I'm curious what you're hearing and what you're thinking and because you're going to be a key player in this because you do have Democrats, especially the loudest Democrats online, wanting Donald Trump impeached. [6:56] Pick an issue. [6:57] Why? [6:58] And yet leadership seems to be more focused on the investigations, knowing that an impeachment is not going to go anywhere in the Senate. [7:06] Well, look, the American people want a restoration of the rule of law and we want the government to be an instrument for the common good again. [7:17] So it is actually working to get health care for people. [7:20] It is working to protect our environment, to counter climate change and to end this reign of corruption and lawlessness. [7:27] That's the principal thing. [7:29] You know, we've impeached Donald Trump twice. [7:32] He's already the only doubly impeached president in American history. [7:36] There have only been four presidential impeachments in our entire history as a country, and he's got 50 percent of them. [7:43] So, you know, would we go to make them three of five, 60 percent of them? [7:48] Nobody's afraid of that. [7:49] But we understand that impeachment is not a panacea. [7:52] It's certainly not a taboo for us. [7:54] We've already proven we're willing to do that. [7:57] But the thing is, is that we've got to be making progress for the country. [8:01] And so if impeachment advances that process, we would do it. [8:05] And if not, we won't. [8:06] We know Donald Trump is very eager for us to impeach him because he's got nothing else going on in his administration. [8:12] He's got no program for the country. [8:14] He's got no policies for the country. [8:16] So he thinks that that would be a way to get people to gather behind him and to assemble his troops. [8:20] And we're not going to play into the game. [8:22] We're talking about the actual policy progress we want to make for America and holding them accountable for every grift and ripoff from the crypto ripoffs to the pay for presidential pardons to the $1.8 billion slush fund for his foot soldiers and his insurrectionary army and the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. [8:42] We're going to blow the whistle on all of that. [8:45] We're going to expose all of those plots. [8:47] And I think Jackie is right if she's reporting that, you know, we're not counting just on Donald Trump complying with the law. [8:55] I think nobody's ever really benefited from that kind of reliance. [8:59] But we're going to find all of the private entities and companies that have been shaken down, that have been intimidated, that have participated in this reign of criminality and lawlessness. [9:09] We're talking about the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States of America. [9:14] Congressman, I want to pull out what Eugene was asking a little bit more with you, blowing the whistle on all of these different plots. [9:24] And in your words, that's going to require a lot of resources if you all take back the majority in November. [9:30] I'm wondering where the Epstein investigation is going to fall in terms of the priority and the hierarchy of investigations, or if that is something that you are all hoping can get wrapped up before the new Congress in 2027. [9:46] Well, you know, we're nowhere near there yet, unfortunately, because the Trump administration has done everything in their power to sweep the actual contents of the Epstein files under the rug. [10:01] And that has been a primary assignment of Todd Blanchard, who you will recall, went to see Ghislaine Maxwell the moment it was clear she was being subpoenaed to come before Congress, not in order to find out who all of the critical participants and co-conspirators were in that massive global child sex trafficking conspiracy, [10:22] but rather to make sure that she had nothing untoward to say about Donald Trump. [10:27] And then remember, she got transferred to that very plush and cushy prison camp where they could give her all sorts of special benefits other people don't get. [10:38] That's really what he's been up to. [10:39] So we've got to actually make sure that we are getting the information that Congress on a bipartisan basis almost unanimously voted to get from the administration. [10:50] But they continue to withhold more than a million essential and critical documents that go to all of the key players there. [10:57] In terms of our organization of it, the Oversight Committee continues to take the lead in terms of trying to get all of that information. [11:06] But the Judiciary Committee, we play a central role as well because we are looking at the way that the Department of Justice has been corrupted by this effort to suppress the truth about the Epstein files. [11:19] And we see that the Justice Department has been acting like an injustice department in terms of standing with the perpetrators instead of hearing from the victims and making sure that people are made whole as much as possible and that the truth actually comes out. [11:34] Congressman Jamie Raskin, ooze aside, we're happy that you joined us this morning on the weekend. [11:40] Thank you so much.