How House Democrats' 'deterrence message' on Trump jobs could backfire

Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, has handed Republicans a possible legal argument against future House and Senate investigations, according to a former Justice Department lawyer. At an October 13 event at the University of Chicago, she said she wants her party to bring "signature cases" against officials who aided President Donald Trump, so that graduates fear taking administration jobs. She said she wants that deterrence message sent, according to Fox News.

Abhishek Kambli, who served as a deputy associate attorney general under Trump and is now a partner at Holtzman Vogel, told Fox News Digital that such comments could undermine Democratic subpoenas if the party wins control of a chamber in the midterms. If a subpoena is challenged, he said, opponents could cite the public record to show the real aim was something other than lawmaking.

Congress holds wide power to investigate and compel testimony, but the Supreme Court has held that it may not use those tools only to punish people. In Trump v. Mazars, decided in 2020, the justices set out four factors for judging subpoenas for the president's financial records, then returned the dispute to lower courts without resolving it. Kambli said simply citing a legislative purpose is not sufficient.

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