Incoming House Oversight Chair Robert Garcia Sets Out Probe Agenda, With Trump Family Business First
A day after Democrats won the midterm elections and took control of both chambers of Congress, Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee and its incoming chair, set out the new Congress's oversight agenda in Huntington Beach, California, on November 4: the committee's first investigation will examine the business dealings of President Donald Trump's family.
Garcia's other listed inquiries cover the conduct of the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, corporate corruption, and the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. He named former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, her former adviser Corey Lewandowski, White House adviser Stephen Miller and members of the Trump family among those who would be called to testify first. He singled out the conflict he sees in Jared Kushner serving as a peace envoy while his investment firm, Affinity Partners, is backed by the sovereign funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and said companies employing Trump's sons had received Pentagon-linked contracts. Jamie Raskin, the incoming Judiciary Committee chair, has written to Kushner demanding financial records on payments by foreign governments and asking him to recuse himself from official negotiations.
Garcia greeted election night with a two-word post, 'Lawyer up,' and told CNBC on November 6 that Oversight Democrats were ready to take on 'the crooks, the con men and the Trump crime family.' He acknowledged that the Justice Department under Attorney General Todd Blanche was unlikely to prosecute anyone who defied a subpoena, meaning the first oversight battles of the new Congress may be fought in court. The new Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2027, when Garcia formally takes the Oversight gavel.
Source: Rep. Robert Garcia
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：众议员 Robert Garcia 官方肖像（资料图）。图：美国众议院，公共领域，经维基共享资源 / Rep. Robert Garcia's official portrait (file photo). Photo by the U.S. House of Representatives, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
