With Trump Weakened, Democrats Prepare for D-Day

By Abigail Tracy, Vanity Fair

29 December 18

On January 3, Democrats will take over the House—and with it, the power to issue subpoenas. They’re already looking to hire a battalion of lawyers and investigators to lead the attack.

s Donald Trump ducks responsibility for the shutdown crisis he created, delaying a resolution until after Nancy Pelosi takes back the speaker’s gavel, House Democrats are preparing to make 800,000 furloughed government workers the least of Trump’s problems. More specifically, party leaders are quietly recruiting legislative and legal talent to bolster their investigative committees in preparation for January 3, the day when they regain subpoena and oversight authority from Republicans who have had their heads in the sand for the last two years. “We’re being deluged with résumés, really impressive résumés. There will be no shortage of good candidates. The difficulty will be choosing among them,” Congressman Adam Schiff, the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN.

Even before the blue wave in November, House Democrats were laying the groundwork for what is shaping up to boom times for government investigators. “Congress is going to force transparency on this president,” one Democratic congressional aide told me within days of the G.O.P. losing its majority. Among the many targets: the president’s administration, campaign, businesses, and associates. They only limiting factor in the new year is time and resources, and Democrats will have plenty of both.

But to effectively turn over the stones neglected by retiring Speaker Paul Ryan, Democrats will need more bodies. Kurt Bardella, who served as a spokesperson and senior adviser for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee from 2009 to 2013, told me in November that Democrats would likely double the size of their staffs after they take control of the House in January. And while the party can’t make new hires until after January 3, the effort to recruit top-flight candidates to join committees—the bulk of which will likely be investigators and lawyers, according to Bardella—is well underway.

One unidentified Democratic House committee reportedly posted a Capitol Hill job listing on November 7—just one day after the midterms. “Responsibilities include staffing letters and subpoenas, conducting interviews, organizing and staffing hearings, and preparing memos, talking points, statements, and reports as necessary,” the listing read, according to CNN. “Previous congressional or executive branch experience preferred, but candidates with diverse backgrounds and experiences are encouraged to apply. Candidates must have attention to detail, excellent writing skills, excel under pressure, and have a sense of humor.”

If Trump retains one advantage in the war to come, it is his ability to manufacture new scandals and crises faster than Democrats can investigate them. The investigation into Russian election interference and potential Trump campaign collusion alone will keep Democrats busy. One source familiar with Democratic plans suggested to CNN that the early days of the new Congress will be like “drinking out of a fire hose.” But they will also have to walk a fine line, facing the risk of appearing overzealous in their probes—something many Democratic insiders fear could turn off voters going into 2020. “We don’t want to conduct oversight the way the Republicans conduct oversight, which is a political circus or not at all,” the congressional aide told me earlier this year.