House Democrats want 2029 to be the year of reckoning for Trump administration officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrats have long accused top members of President Trump\u2019s team of violating laws across a wide range of activities, from deadly immigration raids and strikes on alleged drug boats, to financial self-dealing and targeting Trump\u2019s political enemies for prosecutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has not pursued those cases, the Democrats contend, only because the president\u2019s loyalists control the agency. In many cases, they say, the DOJ itself is guilty of the wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Trump won\u2019t be in power forever. And while the Supreme Court has granted immunity to presidents, shielding Trump from prosecutions related to his time in office, the dispensation does not extend to other administration officials. With that in mind, Democrats are already clamoring for the next administration, Democratic or Republican, to launch investigations into Trump officials \u2014 and prosecute them in cases of demonstrated criminal wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is stiff competition to see who is the leading crook,\u201d Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), who\u2019s in line to chair the House Natural Resources Committee if the House flips in November, cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the criminality of the Trump officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBefore we start calling something a crime or making use of these legal terms that actually have very important meanings, we need to investigate,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to do what Congress has declined to do for the last 16 months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he also warned that Democrats have no intention of waiting until the next president takes power to launch the process. The party has a good chance of flipping control of the House in November\u2019s midterms. Afterwards, he said, the investigations into Trump and his top officials will begin immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to wait for a new administration. We\u2019re going to kick right into oversight and investigation mode. It\u2019s urgent,\u201d Huffman said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a long list; we\u2019re going to be very busy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea of potentially prosecuting Trump officials after Trump leaves office is coming from the very top of the Democrats\u2019 leadership ladder, where House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) has been warning for the better part of a year that administration officials shouldn\u2019t expect leniency from future administrations if they\u2019ve committed crimes in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe one thing that should be clear to all these Republican extremists, and sycophants, and the people who are either actively involved in corruption, violating the law, engaged in extrajudicial activity, is that the statute of limitations for any crimes being committed now [is] five years,\u201d Jeffries said in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt will extend well beyond the end of the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ask Democrats which officials they think deserve the legal scrutiny and the list is long, spanning agencies. But near the top is the DOJ, where former Attorney General Pam Bondi, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel have all been accused of \u201cweaponizing\u201d their offices to pursue investigations, and in some cases, prosecutions, of Trump\u2019s political enemies purely out of revenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blanche has also come under fire for creating a $1.8 billion taxpayer fund to reward Trump supporters who feel they were targeted unfairly by the federal government. And he orchestrated an extraordinary deal between Trump and the IRS shielding the president and his family from investigative audits by the tax collection agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), the vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said Blanche\u2019s conduct is certainly unethical, and could very well be criminal. In either case, an investigation is merited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the architect of a fake settlement between the IRS and the Department of Justice, which are really the same entity because everyone reports to Trump. And then he was the architect of this $1.8 billion slush fund and it took public pressure to get Blanche to back off,\u201d Lieu said. \u201cNow was that illegal? I don\u2019t know. Maybe. Someone should look into it, because he was clearly trying to get money that he wasn\u2019t authorized to get, and Congress never approved, using a fake settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not the first time Lieu, a former Air Force attorney, has gone after a member of Trump\u2019s Cabinet. In December, after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the use of lethal force on alleged drug boats operating in the Caribbean \u2014 and one \u201cdouble-tap\u201d strike targeted a pair of men clinging to the wreckage of the boat \u2014 Lieu noted that the Department of Defense\u2019s war manual asserts that targeting shipwrecked people is a clear example of a war crime. Lieu said those charges should be brought \u2014 now or later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the Trump administration does not hold the people accountable, I guarantee you a future administration will do so,\u201d Lieu said at the time. \u201cBecause there is no statute of limitations for war crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) pointed to two areas of the administration where he wants to focus investigations: The Department of Government Efficiency\u2019s cost-cutting campaign of 2025, when staffers working under Elon Musk were accused of privacy breaches at Social Security and other agencies; and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump adviser, has been accused of doling out shady contracts as a special DHS employee under former Secretary Kristi Noem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shocking thing for contractors to have come forward and said he was shaking them down,\u201d Walkinshaw said. \u201cSo that\u2019s going to need a full investigation. There is an IG [inspector general] investigation right now, but I think that\u2019s definitely a starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has jokingly said he intends to offer preemptive pardons to virtually everyone associated with his administration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,\u201d he told staff in April, according to The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrats say that won\u2019t discourage their investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt can\u2019t change our calculus. We have to push ahead anyway,\u201d Huffman said. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard, when someone has engaged in some of these problematic activities \u2014 I\u2019m not going to say crime, but you know, it certainly looks like crime in many cases. The most Trump can do is give you a federal pardon that may or may not hold up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lieu echoed that message, vowing to charge ahead with investigations and let the courts weigh the legality of Trump\u2019s promised pardons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere will be a test to see if pre-emptive pardons are actually constitutional,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are questions about whether pursuing Trump officials will become a litmus test in the Democratic primary for the next president in 2028. Some Democrats framed that debate a little differently, calling for a commitment to return to the rule of law \u2014 regardless of which party controls the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnyone running for president \u2014 Democrat or Republican \u2014 should commit to having a Department of Justice that follows the law and prosecutes violations of the law,\u201d Walkinshaw said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n