Trey Gowdy Tells Brian Kilmeade Trump Donors Need Lawyers for a Democratic House

Trey Gowdy, the former Republican congressman who now hosts Fox News' Sunday Night in America, said Sunday that Democrats look likely to win the House in November. He also had a warning for the donors who fund Donald Trump and his party: start preparing for subpoenas.

Appearing on Fox News' One Nation with host Brian Kilmeade, Gowdy said a Democratic majority would steer around the White House and focus on the people close to Trump. "If you have donated to anything, the Republican party or Republican candidate, any of the president's projects, you need to probably be on the phone with your lawyer and get ready for a congressional investigation," he said. "And I would say you need to do it yesterday."

The prediction came off air before it came on air. Gowdy represented South Carolina in the House from 2011 to 2019 and chaired the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in his final term. Kilmeade nodded to that record, telling him, "You've been chairman as well," before adding: "You told our producers right now, it looks like Democrats are going to win the House." Gowdy did not dispute it and went straight to what a Democratic majority would do.

What Trey Gowdy Expects From a Democratic House

Gowdy argued that the administration itself would be too hard a target. "I don't think that they're going to go after the administration because the executive branch just has too many defenses and you get tied up in court," he said, adding: "Jeanine Pirro is not going to prosecute Donald Trump. DOJ is not going to prosecute for contempt of Congress."

Instead, he said, Democrats would look elsewhere.

"They're going to target private citizens, family members, people that are in President Trump's orbit. I mean, they went after his family with Russia. ... They're also going to go after donors." — Trey Gowdy

Gowdy also said the press showed little interest when "Joe Biden let everyone off death row." (Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row in December 2024. Three remain under a death sentence.)

How Gowdy's Call Compares to the Forecasts

Kilmeade did not fully share the prediction. "There are so many races in the margin of error and we were so surprised in 2022 that I would not be surprised," he said. "I know the projection is 219 to 198 in the Fox News poll. I think it's going to be even tighter than that."

Kilmeade's figures come from the Fox News Power Rankings, an analysis by Rémy Numa rather than a poll. The rankings were published last Tuesday. They gave Democrats the advantage in at least 219 seats and Republicans at least 198, with 18 toss-ups. A majority takes 218 seats.

The national environment points the same way. Democrats lead by 8.1 points in PolitiKool's polling average of the generic congressional ballot, 48.2 percent to 40.1 percent.

What Subpoena Power Can and Cannot Do

The last time Democrats took the House under Trump, in 2019, the Oversight Committee subpoenaed his accounting firm, Mazars USA, for years of his financial records. The fight reached the Supreme Court. In Trump v. Mazars, decided in July 2020, the justices ruled that the House's approach left essentially no limits on such subpoenas. They also rejected the stricter "demonstrated, specific need" standard that Trump and the Solicitor General had pushed for. The Court set new limits on congressional subpoenas for a president's personal records and sent the case back to the lower courts. By then, Democrats' first term in the majority was almost over.

Enforcement is the weak point Gowdy identified. Under federal law, once the House votes to hold a witness in contempt, the speaker certifies the case to "the appropriate United States attorney," whose duty is to bring it before a grand jury. Gowdy's reference was to Pirro, the former Fox News host whom the Senate confirmed as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in 2025. In practice, the Justice Department still decides case by case. In June 2022 it declined to charge former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and aide Dan Scavino, even though the House had referred both, while it prosecuted Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro.

What Happens Next

Election Day falls on Nov. 3, the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, as federal law requires. The 20th Amendment sets Jan. 3 as the day the new Congress assembles, so the next House would meet on Jan. 3, 2027. If Democrats win, they would hold the committee gavels and the subpoena power that comes with them.

Whether those subpoenas reach donors, as Gowdy predicts, depends first on the 18 races the Fox News Power Rankings still call toss-ups.