Democrats’ Trump probe deepens with document demands

Bloomberg

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler escalated Democrats’ investigations of Donald Trump with sweeping demands for information from scores of people on topics including the administration’s activities, the president’s business and his potential ties to Russia.
The New York City congressman’s probe includes allegations of obstruction of justice, public corruption and other abuses of power and touches on many of the controversies that have dogged Trump since the 2016 presidential campaign.
The panel asked for documents from 81 individuals, agencies and entities, including the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, and the publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, who is accused of killing unflattering news stories about Trump during his candidacy.
“President Trump and his administration face wide-ranging allegations of misconduct that strike at the heart of our constitutional order,” Nadler wrote in letters asking for documents.
Nadler, who asked for information to be provided by March 18, follows other committee chairmen who have made extensive document requests since Democrats took control of the chamber in January. If responses aren’t provided, the panel plans to hold votes authorizing subpoenas, a committee counsel said. This is only the first round of document requests, the counsel said.
“It’s all a hoax,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Asked about the document demands, he said, “I cooperate all the time.” In a statement on Monday evening, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Nadler had “opened up a disgraceful and abusive investigation into tired, false allegations already investigated by the special counsel and committees in both chambers of Congress. Chairman Nadler and his fellow Democrats have embarked on this fishing expedition because they are terrified that their two-year false narrative of ‘Russia collusion’ is crumbling.”
The move is already fueling Republican charges that Nadler’s probe is a thin disguise for a predetermined outcome: impeachment. Any impeachment proceeding would be run by Nadler’s committee.
“After recklessly prejudging the president for obstruction, Chairman Nadler is pursuing evidence to back up his conclusion because, as he admits, ‘We don’t have the facts yet,’” Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.
The White House was among the recipients of numerous document requests, including for Trump’s communications over his dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey, possible pardons for several former Trump associates and any loans by Russians to the Trump Organization or several family members. It also asks for documents on discussions about US sanctions against Russia involving Trump, his campaign, business and associates.
Other topics raised for the White House include the meeting with Russians at Trump Tower in 2016 and changes in that year’s Republican Party platform concerning Russia and Ukraine. Nadler also sought documents on any attempts to give or receive information to “foreign entities” or individuals in connection with the 2016 campaign.
Trump has been lashing out over Democrats’ probes. “Presidential Harassment by ‘crazed’ Democrats at the highest level in the history of our Country,” he wrote Sunday on Twitter.
Nadler, 71, who was first elected to Congress in 1992, made clear he’s prepared to proceed with his probe in ways that go beyond Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible Russian election collusion with Trump’s 2016 presidential team.