2026-09-13T10:30:29.873Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/13/politics/democrats-trump-investigations-midterms
距离中期选举还有两个月，民主党正着手展开针对特朗普政府的大范围调查，并为11月若赢得众议院控制权后的高风险司法斗争做准备。
据与十余名民主党议员及助手的谈话，若民主党夺回众议院多数席位，特朗普总统的对伊战争、白宫宴会厅项目、其家族的商业往来，以及本届政府处理杰弗里·爱泼斯坦相关文件的方式，都将成为调查的首要目标。
民主党表示，若重新夺回众议院多数席位，他们不会浪费制衡特朗普的机会，并称自上次共和党执政期间民主党掌控众议院以来，他们已吸取了诸多教训。几乎无人提及会在当选首日就启动弹劾程序，相反，许多议员正关注一项新工具——诉讼，他们可借此快速迫使相关人员作证并获取所需文件。
若处于多数党地位，民主党将能够以更有效的方式起诉特朗普政府，因为作为少数党时他们不具备起诉资格。无论是迫使高级政府官员作证、就获取文件问题升级争端，还是试图叫停特朗普的白宫宴会厅建设，民主党都计划采取战略性且强硬的法律斗争手段。
“我们将动用工具箱里的所有工具，在多数党位置上，我们无疑将拥有比少数党时期更多的出庭权限，”有望领导众议院司法委员会的民主党众议员杰米·拉斯金对CNN表示。
“我们不会在获取所需证据方面接受‘不’的答复，”拉斯金说道。
拉斯金已针对小唐纳德·特朗普的风投资本公司存在的腐败政府合同交易指控，以及特朗普政府的赦免政策展开调查。众议院监督委员会最高民主党议员罗伯特·加西亚计划约谈总统、第一夫人，以及副总统JD·万斯、白宫办公厅主任苏西·瓦尔斯等高级官员，了解本届政府处理爱泼斯坦事件的情况。加西亚还希望就商业往来问题约谈库什纳及特朗普家族成员。
民主党众议员亚当·史密斯计划在众议院军事委员会范围内，调查特朗普政府发动对伊战争的决定，以及美国对疑似毒船发动的袭击。民主党众议员贾里德·哈夫曼正着手在众议院自然资源委员会内，调查特朗普的宴会厅项目及白宫其他建筑工程。
即便在众议院国土安全委员会处于少数党位置，民主党众议员本尼·汤普森仍一直在试图就本届政府的驱逐行动，以及移民海关执法局的执法手段寻求答案。而这一切都是在没有委员会主持权、传票权力，以及起诉资格的情况下完成的——若民主党赢得多数席位，这些都将手到擒来。
目前，有望执掌各委员会的议员们正积极梳理首要调查优先级，就各自负责的调查领域展开竞争，并试图为宏大的调查目标制定统一协调的整体计划。
民主党领导层及各委员会团队正准备在11月胜选后启动大规模招聘，以应对他们规划的密集调查工作。其中最重要的职位之一，便是民主党任命的内部总法律顾问，他们将协助民主党处理诉讼及法庭事务。
“如果你是一位资质出众、经验丰富的律师或高级幕僚，希望参与这个具有历史意义的问责时刻，不妨考虑回到国会山加入我们的团队，因为我们正在扩充人手，”哈夫曼对CNN说道。
民主党已通过成立法律专项工作组奠定了基础，即便在少数党地位时，该工作组已取得多项成果，包括成功阻止特朗普政府阻挠议员按计划对联邦移民拘留设施进行监督性访问。
“若民主党在任何一院拿下主持权，我们预计将在广泛的议题和实体上开展持续监督。企业和机构应利用现在的时间做好接受审查的准备，”詹纳·布洛克律师事务所合伙人艾米丽·勒布说道，该所团队已接到多家准备应对国会调查的企业的咨询。
当然，法庭上没有必胜的把握。但民主党表示，他们并未因此却步，包括最高法院最近一项裁决，该裁决允许特朗普继续推进其在白宫的大型新宴会厅项目，认定一个保护组织缺乏挑战该项目的法律资格，即“起诉资格”。
“唐纳德·特朗普无法靠拖延时间来规避这些非法建筑项目，因为他在最高法院的盟友以缺乏起诉资格为由驳回了相关诉讼，”哈夫曼说道。
但诉诸法庭只是民主党可使用的手段之一。
考虑到特朗普政府可能设置障碍，民主党还计划大量依赖向私营部门提出信息请求。他们表示，私营部门不受特朗普可能援引的行政特权约束，而政府官员在配合国会请求或传票时可能会动用这一特权。
民主党称，他们已与多名政府内外的举报人建立了联系，若无法直接从特朗普政府官员处获取所需答案，他们将在成为多数党时依靠这些举报人。
提交立法也将成为调查议程的一部分，包括尝试赋予国会在第25条修正案制定中的角色，实施更严格的禁令，阻止总统从外国政府牟利，以及永久取消“反武器化”基金。
拉斯金是2021年2月特朗普第二次弹劾审判的首席管理人，他认为，若民主党在11月夺回多数席位，弹劾特朗普甚至不应被纳入初始讨论范围，因为参议院定罪的可能性微乎其微。
“我从未听任何人说过，我们的首要任务应该是弹劾唐纳德·特朗普，”拉斯金对CNN表示。“他尚未被定罪，即便针对他最严重且不可否认的违宪行为，定罪的可能性也很小，因为他对共和党国会的独裁控制比上次弹劾时更强。”
与此同时，加西亚表示，他的重点是寻找证据证明他所说的特朗普的腐败行为。
“特朗普每周都会犯下可被弹劾的罪行。但我们的工作是阻止特朗普，阻止他的议程，这是头等大事。因此，对我们来说，我们的工作是开展调查，构建证据，证明他是有史以来最腐败的公职人员，”他对CNN说道。
但即便弹劾因参议院定罪可能性低而并非最有效策略，史密斯仍认为，民主党不应回避阐明特朗普应被弹劾的理由：“我会全力推动这一论点。”
尽管民主党领导层并未支持弹劾，但普通议员内部仍存在推动弹劾的压力。
数十名民主党议员在2025年6月支持启动正式的弹劾辩论。
2025年6月投票支持弹劾的民主党众议员雅萨明·安萨里对CNN表示，她支持弹劾特朗普，但更侧重于展现问责。
“我从选民那里听到很多声音，称如果存在犯罪行为，我们必须真正提起诉讼，人们希望看到掌权者若犯罪就锒铛入狱。道理就是这么简单，”她告诉CNN。“我们现在以为永远不会再有另一个唐纳德·特朗普，但完全可能出现另一个特朗普，甚至更糟的版本。如果我们不表明会有相应后果，民众也不会再信任政府。”
在她看来，民主党在以往弹劾事件后犯下的错误——这些都发生在她就职前——是事后试图恢复常态。
“我认为这在很多方面让特朗普2.0变得更糟，因为他们以为特朗普可以为所欲为而不受惩罚，事实上，他最终再次当选了，”安萨里说道。
另一位在去年6月投票支持弹劾的民主党议员马克·波坎，有望负责监督白宫预算及已撤销的政府效率部的小组委员会主席，如今他表示民主党不应操之过急。
“我认为我们必须先开展调查工作，也就是监督工作，”波坎说道。
民主党正努力寻求微妙平衡，议员们积极讨论如何在不仓促行事的前提下实现问责。
“每个人都对本届政府心怀不满，”任职于监督委员会的民主党众议员苏哈斯·苏布拉马尼亚姆对CNN表示。“肯定有人首先想做的就是启动对特朗普的弹劾。本届国会已经发生过一次了。我只是想确保，如果我们启动弹劾，那一定是铁证如山的案件。”
出于对特朗普调查策略的谨慎考量，一些民主党人士称，弹劾特朗普内阁官员，尤其是国防部长皮特·赫格西的势头可能先于弹劾总统而起。
“弹劾这位总统导致其支持者更加团结，也让其党内同僚更加坚定地为他辩护，”任职于众议院司法委员会的民主党众议员玛丽·盖伊·斯坎伦对CNN说道。“我猜测，一些外围的弹劾行动可能会更早推进。”
不过，许多民主党人士认为，有关未来可能调查议程的所有讨论都为时过早，当前的重点是拿下足够多数的众议院席位，并保持希望，即参议院也可能被纳入掌控。
民主党还表示，他们将积极尝试将任何监督工作与他们解决民众面临的经济负担问题的努力相结合，以回击批评，即他们的调查纯粹是为了扳倒特朗普。
“我不认为二者相互矛盾。不解决腐败对美国民众的影响，就无法解决生活成本问题。因此，我认为二者是相辅相成的，”领导民主党胜选后反腐败议程专项工作组的民主党众议员乔·莫雷尔对CNN说道。
在积极推进监督工作的同时，一些民主党议员担心党团会忽视其经济负担相关的宣传信息。将民主党的经济主张与反腐败议程联系起来，是本届国会中期选举前最后冲刺阶段的关键目标。
“如果我们有幸获得多数席位，我们必须抓住这一时刻扭转局面，”民主党众议员克里斯·德卢齐奥对CNN说道。“我们必须将经济斗争置于首位，不能只做监督工作。”
若赢得多数席位，众议院民主党人还必须平衡调查特朗普政府的工作，同时现实地认识到，民主党领导层仍需与白宫就各类问题开展合作，以确保政府基本职能，如维持政府拨款，得以继续运行。
众议院民主党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯最近与库什纳举行了一次私人会面，此事引发了民主党内部的分歧。但许多人后来表示，在听到民主党领袖的解释后，他们放下了疑虑。杰弗里斯称，库什纳主动要求会面，他“为讨论经济危机”而参加，并表示即便杰弗里斯继续与政府官员会面，也不会影响民主党开展强硬监督的计划，即便针对库什纳的调查也不例外。
民主党并未缩小调查范围，反而逐渐倾向于同时开展多项甚至存在重叠的调查。
2019年，民主党团结一致开展调查，最终促成针对特朗普的首次弹劾，指控特朗普在 withhold 美国安全援助和白宫会议的情况下，施压乌克兰调查其政治对手。
但在当前的环境下，民主党希望采取更灵活的策略，准备每天就不同议题举行多场听证会。
“我们必须加快步伐，这意味着不能只由两个委员会负责所有调查，”一名民主党助手对CNN说道。“为了让民众感受到真正的问责正在发生，你需要制造声势，并且这些内容需要针对不同受众进行调整，这样人们才能真正看到，否则他们不会相信我们真的在行动。”
不过，由于多个委员会存在重叠的调查目标，其他民主党议员仍希望领导层进行协调。史密斯对CNN表示：“这必须是一项协调一致的努力，而不是每个委员会各自为政。”
Democrats plan to ramp up investigations into Trump family, White House ballroom and Epstein if they win the House
2026-09-13T10:30:29.873Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/13/politics/democrats-trump-investigations-midterms
With two months until the midterm elections, Democrats are laying the groundwork to launch far-reaching investigations into the Trump administration and preparing for high-stakes court battles if they win control of the House of Representatives in November.
President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, his White House ballroom project, his family’s business dealings and the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files will be among the top targets of investigations if Democrats take back the House, according to conversations with over a dozen Democratic lawmakers and aides.
Democrats don’t want to squander the opportunity to act as a check on Trump if they reclaim the majority and say they have learned a lot since the last time the party controlled the House while Trump was in office. Few say they are interested in launching an impeachment process on day one, and many instead are eyeing a new tool that would be at their disposal to try to quickly compel the testimony and documents they seek: lawsuits.
In the majority, Democrats would have the ability to sue the Trump administration in a more effective way since they have not had standing to do so in the minority. Whether it is compelling testimony from a top administration official, escalating a fight over obtaining documents or trying to halt the construction of Trump’s White House ballroom, Democrats plan to be strategic and aggressive about taking their fight to court.
“We’re going to use every tool in the toolbox and we will have certainly a lot more authority to get ourselves into court in the majority than we did when we were in the minority,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is in line to lead the powerful House Judiciary Committee, told CNN.
“We are not taking no for an answer in terms of getting the evidence we need,” Raskin said.
Raskin has already launched investigations into allegations of corrupt government contract deals at Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm and on the Trump administration’s pardon policy. Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, wants to interview the president and first lady as well as top officials like Vice President JD Vance and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles about how the administration has handled the Epstein matter. Garcia also wants to interview Kushner and Trump family members about their business dealings.
Democratic Rep. Adam Smith plans to probe the Trump administration’s decision to go to war with Iran and US strikes on alleged drug boats atop the House Armed Services Committee. Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman is laying the groundwork to investigate Trump’s ballroom and other construction projects on the House Natural Resources panel.
Even in the minority on the House Homeland Security Committee, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson has tried to get answers on the administration’s deportation efforts and the practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And that’s without committee gavels, subpoena power, and the standing to sue in court — all of which House Democrats will gain if they win the majority.
For now, Lawmakers in line to run committees are working aggressively to outline their top investigative priorities, jockeying for who will investigate what and trying to coordinate an overarching plan on ambitious investigative targets.
Democratic leadership and committee teams are preparing to launch an aggressive hiring push if they win in November to be ready for the onslaught of investigations they have planned. One of the most important roles will be who Democrats select to be their in-house general counsel, who will help Democrats navigate lawsuits and the courts.
“If you’re a highly qualified, experienced lawyer or senior staffer out there that wants to be part of this historic moment of accountability think about coming back to the Capitol and being part of this team because we will be staffing up,” Huffman told CNN.
Democrats have laid the groundwork through the creation of a legal task force, which has already racked up wins even with the party in the minority, including successfully stopping the Trump administration from blocking lawmakers from making announced oversight visits to federal immigration detention facilities.
“Should Democrats get the gavel in either chamber, we expect sustained oversight across a sweeping range of issues and entities. Companies and institutions should use the time they have now to prepare for that scrutiny,” said Emily Loeb, a partner at the law firm Jenner & Block, whose team has already been contacted by companies preparing for congressional investigations.
Of course, there’s no guarantee of success in the courts. But Democrats say they are not deterred by that, including a recent decision by the Supreme Court that cleared the way for Trump to continue construction of his massive new ballroom project at the White House, concluding that a preservation group lacked the legal right — known as standing — to challenge the project.
“Donald Trump will not be able to run out the clock on these illegal construction projects because his buddies on the Supreme Court bounced a case for lack of standing,” Huffman said.
But bringing an issue to court would just be one option at the party’s disposal.
Anticipating roadblocks from the Trump administration, Democrats also plan to rely heavily on requests for information from the private sector, which they say would not be beholden to the same executive privilege restrictions Trump may invoke on government officials asked to comply with congressional requests or subpoenas.
And Democrats say they have already developed relationships with multiple whistleblowers both inside and outside the government who they would also rely on in the majority if they can’t get the answers they seek directly from Trump administration officials.
Introducing legislation would also be a component of the investigative agenda, including trying to give Congress a role in the enactment of the 25th Amendment, imposing stricter requirements barring a president from profiting from a foreign government, and permanently eliminating the “anti-weaponization” fund.
Raskin was the lead manager for Trump’s second impeachment trial in February 2021, and does not think impeaching Trump should even be in the initial conversation if Democrats reclaim the majority in November, given the chances of conviction in the Senate are so slim.
“I’ve not heard a single person say to me that they think our top priority should be impeachment of Donald Trump,” Raskin told CNN. “He hasn’t been convicted, and the chances of conviction on even his most gross and undeniable offenses against the Constitution are slim because he exercises even more authoritarian control over the Republican Congress than he did in the last impeachment.”
Garcia, meanwhile, said his focus is on finding evidence of what he says is Trump’s corruption.
“Trump commits an impeachable offense every week. But our job is to stop Trump, to stop his agenda. That’s job number one. So, for us, our job is to (do) investigations and building a case as to why this is the most corrupt person ever to serve,” he told CNN.
But even if impeachment turns out to not be most effective strategy as conviction remains unlikely in the Senate, Smith argued that Democrats should not shy away from making the case for why Trump should be impeached: “I’m going to be all in favor of pushing that argument.”
And while Democratic leaders have not endorsed impeachment, there is still pressure to pursue it within the rank-and-file.
Dozens of Democrats supported the launch of a formal impeachment debate back in June 2025.
One of those Democrats to vote back in June, Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari, told CNN she supports impeaching Trump but is more focused on showing accountability.
“I do hear a lot from my constituents about how we need to really prosecute if there are crimes that have been committed and people want to see people in power go to jail if they’ve committed crimes. It’s really that simple,” she told CNN. “We think now that there could never be another Donald Trump. There could easily be another Donald Trump. There could be a worse version of Donald Trump. And if we don’t show that there are consequences, then people also just won’t trust government.”
In her view, the mistake Democrats made after the past impeachments, which occurred before she assumed office, was trying to go back to normal afterward.
“I think in many ways that allowed Trump 2.0 to be so much worse because they thought they could get away with the worst possible things and nothing happened and in fact, he ultimately was re-elected again,” Ansari said.
Another one of those Democrats to vote back in June of last year, Rep. Mark Pocan, who is in line to chair the subcommittee that oversees the White House budget and the now defunct Department of Government Efficiency, now says Democrats need to not get ahead of themselves.
“I think we’ve got to do our investigation work first and that’s oversight work” Pocan said.
It’s a delicate balance that Democrats are trying to strike as members actively discuss how to deliver accountability without rushing into anything.
“Everyone’s got an axe to grind with this administration,” Democratic Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, who serves on the Oversight Committee, told CNN. “I think there are definitely people who, the first thing they want to do is start impeaching Trump. We’ve already had that happen this Congress. I just want to make sure if we do impeachment, that’s it’s going to be an ironclad case.”
Wanting to be strategic about how to investigate Trump, some Democrats say that momentum for impeaching Trump cabinet officials, particularly Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, could take off first.
“Impeaching this president has caused his supporters to dig in even harder. And his party members to dig in and defend him even harder,” Democratic Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee told CNN. “I suspect that some of those peripheral impeachment efforts might move sooner.”
Many Democrats, though, argue the entire conversation about a potential future investigative agenda is premature and the focus now is on winning back the House with a sizable majority and keeping up hope that the Senate could also be in play.
Democrats say they will also be proactive in trying to tie any oversight work to their efforts to address the affordability concerns that many people face, in an effort to combat criticism that their investigations would be squarely about going after Trump.
“I don’t think they’re incompatible. You cannot address the cost of living without the impact of corruption on the American public. So, I think they’re hand in hand,” Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle, who is leading the task force to create the anti-corruption agenda for Democrats if they win the majority, told CNN.
In the aggressive pursuit of oversight, some Democrats are wary of the caucus losing sight of its affordability message. Making that connection between Democrats’ affordability and anti-corruption agenda is a critical goal for the party this fall in the final sprint ahead of the midterms.
“If we are entrusted with the majority, we have to meet the moment to turn the ship around,” Democratic Rep. Chris Deluzio told CNN. “We have to take the economic fight front and center and we cannot only be doing oversight.”
If they win the majority, House Democrats will also have to balance their efforts to investigate the Trump administration with the reality that Democratic leadership will still have to work with the White House on various issues to ensure basic functions of the government, like keeping the government funded, can continue.
Democrats were split after House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries recently took a private meeting with Kushner. But many said later they felt reassured after hearing the explanation from the Democratic leader, who said Kushner asked for the meeting and he took it “to discuss the affordability crisis,” and said even if Jeffries were to continue taking meetings with administration officials it would have no bearing on Democrats’ plans for aggressive oversight, even of Kushner.
Instead of narrowing their list of investigations, the party is warming to the idea of conducting multiple, even overlapping, investigations at once.
In 2019, Democrats coalesced around an investigation that culminated in the first impeachment of Trump over allegations that the president pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals while withholding US security assistance and a White House meeting.
But in the current environment, Democrats want to be more dynamic and are prepared to have multiple hearings on different issues a day.
“We’ve got to move fast and that means it can’t all live in two committees,” a Democratic aide told CNN. “In order to make people feel like real accountability is happening, you need to have a volume and that amount of content needs to be tuned to different audiences so that people actually see it or they won’t believe we are doing anything.”
Still, other Democrats are looking to leadership for coordination as many committees have overlapping investigative targets, with Smith telling CNN, “it’s going to have to be a coordinated effort, not something that each committee is going to be flying off on their own.”