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A $1.4 billion cryptocurrency windfall. Well-timed stock trades. A wedding after-party bankrolled by a Kremlin-connected businessman.
For nearly two years, congressional Democrats were powerless to probe these potential scandals and conflicts looming over President Trump and his family businesses. But after pulling off a landslide midterm election victory that amounted to a sweeping rebuke of the president, they will soon seize control of Congress — and with it, the power to open investigations, hold hearings and issue subpoenas.
Representative Robert Garcia, the California Democrat poised to chair the House Oversight Committee, summed up the threat succinctly in a statement late Tuesday: “Lawyer up.”
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Garcia said that his warning was meant chiefly for people at the White House who “engaged in corruption” and enriched themselves. “The Trump crime family is the top of our investigative priorities,” he said.
Subpoenas, though, do not guarantee a fruitful investigation.
Some of the president’s business associates and allies are expected to fight some of the subpoenas in court, which could become a lengthy process. And even if the Democrats shed new light on moneymaking ventures, there is no indication that the Trump family violated the law — potentially complicating any effort to pursue impeachment proceedings against the president.
Still, Mr. Garcia and other congressional leaders believe they will find a target-rich environment.
After winning back the White House two years ago, Mr. Trump abandoned his first-term pledge to rein in his family’s deal making, enabling new ventures that enriched the president, his sons and some of his advisers. He shrugged off concerns about conflicts of interest, contending that he “found out that nobody cared.”
He turned out to be wrong. An AP exit poll found that government corruption was a crucial issue for many voters, and that roughly seven in 10 voters said Congress was doing “not enough” to provide checks and balances on the presidency.
In the House, the Oversight and Judiciary committees will lead the investigative efforts, which will not be limited to the Trump family business. Senator Maggie Hassan, the New Hampshire Democrat in line to chair the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is expected to conduct her own investigations as well.
“We need to zero in quickly on the forms of systemic pay-to-play corruption that are destroying the rule of law and have cost the public huge amounts of money,” Representative Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.
Here are some of the main issues that Democrats are expected to investigate.
Crypto
Mr. Trump’s financial returns have multiplied during his second term, largely thanks to his crypto businesses. Those ventures pulled in at least $1.4 billion in revenue last year, a windfall that posed unparalleled potential conflicts of interest.
Congressional investigators will most likely focus on the Trump family’s main crypto company, World Liberty Financial. Last year, an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates bought a huge stake in World Liberty. Four months later, the Emiratis struck a deal with the Trump administration — over the objections of some national security officials — for the export of valuable computer chips.
Mr. Trump also collected hundreds of millions of dollars from sales of his $TRUMP memecoin, a type of cryptocurrency that is typically treated like a collectible, and World Liberty’s sale of its own digital tokens. The buyers included foreign entities and businesses seeking relief from the Trump administration.
Donald Trump Jr.
The activities of the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., are another top priority for Democrats.
Mr. Trump Jr. has not made things easy for himself. He allowed a Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to help finance his wedding after-party in the Bahamas this year, drawing outrage from congressional Democrats. The president has said that his son repaid the businessman, Umar Kremlev, but Mr. Garcia has flagged it as an investigative target.
Mr. Raskin has also begun investigating 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a senior partner. Several of the companies that 1789 has invested in have received government funding while others benefited from Trump policies.
In a statement, a spokesman for Donald Trump Jr. said that he “is a private citizen who holds no position in government and has broken no laws.”
The statement added that Mr. Trump Jr. “has never sought to influence government policy or official decision making for the benefit of his personal business interests and has every right to pursue lawful and legitimate business and investment opportunities.”
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President Trump at the site of the White House ballroom on Wednesday. An AP exit poll found that government corruption was a crucial issue for many voters, and that roughly seven in 10 voters said Congress was doing “not enough” to provide checks and balances on the presidency. Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
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