House Democrats are planning a major overhaul of the Trump administration. Impeachment is an option

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are preparing a major surveillance agenda, including investigations into President Donald Trump, his family and his administration, if the party wrests control of the House from Republicans in the November election.

The undertaking is as robust as it is daunting, across several House committees. With majority power comes bigger budgets and staff, and the ability to investigate, call out and potentially course-correct what Democrats say is widespread corruption and abuse of power. Impeachment of the Republican president and cabinet officials is not off the table.

“There is a cost to the American people of extraordinary corruption,” said Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is in line to become House speaker if Democrats win control of the Capitol.

“If people have stolen from the American people, shortchanged the American people or screwed the American people,” Jeffries said, “we will hold the crooks accountable.”

Congress has tremendous ability to make oversight of the executive branch part of its power as a co-equal branch of government, and a road map for the Democratic-led investigations has already been laid out by the almost daily letters lawmakers send to the administration and in amicus court filings.

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Democrats are questioning the money being made by Trump and his family, whose wealth has grown dramatically since he returned to the White House in January 2025. They investigate the potential civil rights violations of Americans killed protesting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and of detained immigrants being deported to distant countries. They fought the closing of the Kennedy Center, launched investigations into America’s private funding of 250 fires and pursued the closure of federal operations, including the US Agency for International Development.

New questions arise every day, including the Trump family’s recent acknowledgment that a weekend wedding celebration for the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. was partially funded by a Russian oligarch with reportedly close ties to the Kremlin.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who is in line to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee, characterized the issues involved as “gargantuan.”

“We must quickly zero in on the forms of systemic corruption that have cost the public enormous sums of money,” Raskin told The Associated Press, “and where there is a legislative cure available.”

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Jeffries will almost certainly be under pressure from the far left to move more quickly on articles of impeachment against Trump, who during his tenure became the first president to be impeached twice by the House. Both times he was acquitted by the Senate.

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Impeaching the president a third time may not hold the currency it once did. Democrats are more likely to focus their impeachment efforts on cabinet members. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is already facing articles of impeachment from a Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, about his leadership in the Pentagon and his management of the Iran war.

“We haven’t ruled anything out,” Jeffries said recently of the tools available to Congress, “and we haven’t ruled anything out.”

The White House is likely to play hardball when faced with investigations, and Democrats are bracing for an administration that ignores potential subpoenas or refuses to turn over documents that lawmakers demand.

Democrats are also reaching out across the administration and various corporate and business entities for potential wrongdoing.

“We’re acting like Congress,” says one Democrat in line to lead a committee

Ranking Democratic lawmakers who are in line to lead committees when power shifts begin mapping out the investigations they plan to tackle.

Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat now on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, outlined five priorities, including Trump family business negotiations, the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and ICE operations.

“We’re already doing work,” Garcia told the AP.

He also chaired the Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned, as well as broader allegations of corporate corruption.

The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, whose jurisdiction includes the State Department, said the committee plans to investigate Trump’s international dealings, including around the Iran war.

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He expects the committee to also investigate the administration and Venezuela’s operations – from military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific waters to the US partnership with a private company to develop and obtain the South American country’s oil.

Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the ranking Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the Interior Department and its National Park Service operations overseas, began digging into Trump’s “vanity projects,” including the demolition of the East Wing of the White House for a new ballroom and the president’s proposed Arch.

Huffman and other committee members also looked into the Trump family’s role in various mineral deals.

At the committee’s last session before lawmakers head to the midterm elections, Huffman said that if Democrats take charge, he plans to call witnesses, put them under oath and follow the evidence wherever it leads.

“When people ask what we’re going to do,” he said, he responds, “My answer is simple. We’re going to use these tools. We’re going to act like Congress.”