Democrats map out Trump investigations on family wealth, Epstein and 'vanity projects' after midterms

Democrats are preparing a flurry of investigations into President Donald Trump's administration and business dealings if they retake one or both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, aiming to skirt White House obstruction and avoid the impeachment deadlock of Trump's first term.

Polls suggest Democrats could win one or both chambers, and a majority in either would bring control of committees, bigger budgets and staff, and subpoena power to compel the administration to respond to Congress.

The Trump family's business dealings will be a top priority for California Representative Robert Garcia, set to lead the House Oversight Committee if Democrats win the chamber. He told the Washington Post that "there's so much corruption and grift that it's going to take the entire House on the Democratic side to do investigations appropriately". Democrats have requested information on Jared Kushner's dual roles as an informal foreign policy adviser and head of a private equity firm doing business with foreign governments, and want probes into whether family crypto investments opened a channel for foreign influence.

Trump's ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein are another focus. Democrats are pushing to investigate whether the Justice Department violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act by withholding or improperly redacting documents, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer created a special working group in February to plumb Epstein-related information withheld from the public.

Democrats say they must balance oversight with voters' anger over surging prices. "More than 90 percent of voters think that government has been corrupted," Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a likely chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The Hill, adding that probes must not distract from "fairly immediate cost problems that American families feel". Daniel Goshorn, chief investigative counsel to Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, said last week that private equity's effect on healthcare and housing costs, and "taxation of data centres" amid public outcry over artificial intelligence, would be focuses.

Democrats are also set to highlight what they call Trump's wasteful "vanity projects" in Washington, including the troubled Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and a 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom funded in part by longtime donors and friends. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, told Time he would probe whether Trump followed the necessary approval process and whether ballroom donors received favorable treatment.

Many Democrats are wary of a third impeachment; Trump was impeached twice in his first term and acquitted by the Senate both times, and he teased rivals at an Oklahoma rally: "I've become very good at beating them in impeachment." Some may pursue cabinet members instead, notably Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, a potential House speaker, telling an October rally that "we're going to run Pete Hegseth out of town". Senators Elizabeth Warren, Andy Kim and Richard Blumenthal have demanded information from Hegseth about Pentagon loans and contracts to companies "associated with the president's son", and Garcia has sought records detailing Donald Trump Jr.'s relationship with Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, who helped bankroll his May wedding in the Bahamas.

White House lawyers have briefed political appointees and agency leaders on handling inquiries and subpoenas, advising care about what they put in writing, officials told Reuters. Expecting slow-walked requests and executive privilege claims, Democrats plan to pursue private entities tied to Trump; Goshorn said banks could serve as "repositories of information" for Congress "without going through the front door".

Pardons are also in Democratic sights. Asked on a New York Post podcast on Monday if he would pardon everyone who worked for him, Trump replied: "I'd do it." Democrats vow to investigate donations made in hopes of clemency, the reported $50 million former Trump lawyer Alina Habba Mildon earned helping secure a pardon for a wealthy Venezuelan family member, and Trump's pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to violating money-laundering law.