WASHINGTON ― Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on Monday sent document requests to 81 agencies, entities and individuals close to President Donald Trump as part of a broad investigation into possible obstruction of justice, public corruption and other abuses of power.
The list includes Trump’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., as well as his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. It also names dozens of current and former members of Trump’s administration, inaugural committee, his businesses and his campaign.
The letters piggyback off the preexisting investigations being run by Robert Mueller’s special counsel office as well as federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. They inform recipients that, in the interest of speeding up the process, they can limit their production to documents they already turned over in response to those investigations.
“We have sent these document requests in order to begin building the public record,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “The Special Counsel’s office and the Southern District of New York are aware that we are taking these steps. We will act quickly to gather this information, assess the evidence, and follow the facts where they lead with full transparency with the American people.”
The probe will focus on three main areas: whether Trump obstructed justice by interfering in criminal investigations of his campaign and administration, whether he violated the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution and campaign finance laws, and potential misuse of his pardon powers and other abuses of power.
By launching the investigation, Democrats are effectively ensuring Trump’s long litany of scandals will remain in the news throughout and up to the 2020 presidential election, including his firing of former FBI Director James Comey, his alleged involvement in a hush money scheme, the dealings of the Trump Foundation, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with foreign officials, to name just a few.
Some people on the list are likely to invoke executive privilege in response to requests for sensitive documents from their time in the White House. That group could possibly include former White House counsel Don McGahn and former top White House communications aide Hope Hicks. Those who received document requests from the committee have been told to respond by no later than March 18, though some are expected to fight the request and force a possible subpoena.
The committee, for example, asks Hicks to produce “any personal or work diary, journal, or other book containing notes, a record or a description of daily events” related to her long time spent working for Trump prior to and after his election in 2016.
The request to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, on the other hand, asks him to produce documents pertaining to his “possible resignation or firing” as well as “any conversation in which President Trump stated, in words or substance, that he wanted the Mueller investigation shut down.”
Michael Cohen, the president’s longtime lawyer who testified before the House oversight committee last week, is asked to produce “any audio or video recordings of any conversation with or relating to the Trump Campaign, Donald Trump or his Business Interests from June 2015 to the present.”
See below for the full list of people and groups that received document requests from the committee:
- Alan Garten
- Alexander Nix
- Allen Weisselberg
- American Media Inc
- Anatoli Samochornov
- Andrew Intrater
- Annie Donaldson
- Brad Parscale
- Brittany Kaiser
- Cambridge Analytica
- Carter Page
- Columbus Nova
- Concord Management and Consulting
- Corey Lewandowski
- David Pecker
- Department of Justice
- Don McGahn
- Donald J Trump Revocable Trust
- Donald Trump Jr.
- Dylan Howard
- Eric Trump
- Erik Prince
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Felix Sater
- Flynn Intel Group
- General Services Administration
- George Nader
- George Papadopoulos
- Hope Hicks
- Irakly Kaveladze
- Jared Kushner
- Jason Maloni
- Jay Sekulow
- Jeff Sessions
- Jerome Corsi
- John Szobocsan
- Julian Assange
- Julian David Wheatland
- Keith Davidson
- KT McFarland
- Mark Corallo
- Matt Tait
- Matthew Calamari
- Michael Caputo
- Michael Cohen
- Michael Flynn
- Michael Flynn Jr.
- Paul Erickson
- Paul Manafort
- Peter Smith (Estate)
- Randy Credico
- Reince Priebus
- Rhona Graff
- Rinat Akhmetshin
- Rob Goldstone
- Roger Stone
- Ronald Lieberman
- Sam Nunberg
- SCL Group Limited
- Sean Spicer
- Sheri Dillon
- Stefan Passantino
- Steve Bannon
- Ted Malloch
- The White House
- Trump Campaign
- Trump Foundation
- Trump Organization
- Trump Transition
- Viktor Vekselberg
- Wikileaks
- 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee
- Christopher Bancroft Burnham
- Frontier Services Group
- J.D. Gordon
- Kushner Companies
- NRA
- Rick Gates
- Tom Barrack
- Tom Bossert
- Tony Fabrizio
Paul Blumenthal contributed to this report.