U.S. Democrats Already Probing Big Businesses’ Close Ties to Trump Administration

[Financial News] After winning control of both chambers in this month’s midterm elections, the U.S. Democratic Party has launched an investigation into American companies, asking about their ties to the Donald Trump administration, even before the new Congress begins next year. Companies have moved quickly to hire law firms to prepare for the congressional inquiry.
According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 9th (local time), Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent dozens of letters to companies on the 5th, requesting relevant materials concerning their interests involving the Trump administration. He is reportedly set to become chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations under the Senate Homeland Security Committee in the new Congress, which convenes on January 3 next year. He specified that companies must submit the materials by the new Congress’s first regular business day, January 4. The companies Blumenthal wrote to included Amazon, Apple Inc., BlackRock, Google, Microsoft (MS) and Coinbase, which donated to the construction of a White House banquet hall for U.S. President Donald Trump. Blumenthal also sent a separate letter to a cryptocurrency company with ties to the Trump family. He warned the companies that received his letters that if they failed to submit the materials by the deadline, “we will have no choice but to consider other measures to compel compliance with the request.”
With a Democratic landslide expected ahead of the midterm elections on the 3rd, Democratic lawmakers warned early on that they would investigate companies linked to the Trump administration. In a report released on the 2nd, Democratic members of the Senate Banking Committee alleged that Toyota, Walmart, Live Nation and major banks received favorable treatment from the government after donating to Trump’s inauguration. The House Judiciary Committee is also investigating reports that an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation was settled at Trump’s direction. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the leading contender to become the next chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said he could subpoena major law firms that agreed to provide free legal services to businesses favored by the president in order to avoid sanctions from the Trump administration.
According to WSJ, Democrats are also reportedly seeking to obtain materials exchanged between companies and the White House to gain access to internal information from the Trump administration. For several months, Democrats have been preparing for the investigation by asking companies across a range of industries, including technology, energy, aerospace and healthcare, to preserve relevant documents.
Companies, in turn, have responded by hiring major law firms to identify potential subjects of investigation and collect relevant documents. Robert Kelner, an attorney at the local law firm Covington & Burling, predicted that the Democratic landslide would mean “(the companies’ allies in Congress) will dwindle,” adding, “The scale of the landslide will be a factor in prompting Democratic lawmakers to be as aggressive as possible in investigating companies.”
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