Democrats Vow ‘Day One’ Epstein Hearings if They Flip House

Democrats are planning to investigate President Donald Trump’s family businesses and subpoena acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to testify about Jeffrey Epstein if they win control of the House in November.

California Rep. Robert Garcia, who is in line to become the chairman of the House Oversight Committee under Democratic control, told NOTUS that Democrats are prepared to subpoena Blanche and other administration officials on “day one” — and that he expects some of their testimony to happen on camera.

“We’ve had zero hearings on Epstein,” Garcia said about the GOP-led investigation. “It’s a huge investigation the American public is interested in … there will definitely be public hearings.”

Beyond Epstein, Garcia is proposing an investigative agenda that will target “Trump family corruption,” potential pay-to-play schemes at the Department of Homeland Security and the destruction of vaccine programs at Health and Human Services. Republicans are certain to oppose those efforts.

“You gotta take on the Trump family,” Garcia said, pointing to an investment fund that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner runs even as he works on the administration’s policies in the Middle East. He also wants to examine the large government contracts awarded to companies in which Trump’s children hold stakes, as well as the multibillion-dollar crypto deal last year between the Trump family and an Emirati state-backed venture fund.

“Those things have to be investigated, because it is pure government corruption,” Garcia said.

The current House Oversight chair, James Comer (R-Kentucky), has led committee investigations into then-President Joe Biden, Epstein and the COVID-19 pandemic. He dismissed the Democrats’ plans, saying they “just want to try to go after Trump.”

“They’re the biggest hypocrites I’ve ever seen,” Comer said. “They’re just one-trick ponies, they’re going to go after Trump. They don’t care about taxpayers, they don’t care about wasted programs. So let’s hope for the American people they don’t win.”

Garcia, 48, catapulted to the lead Democrat on the Oversight Committee last year in just his second term in Congress — the only second-term member in 100 years selected to serve as the top Democrat on a House committee through a vote of the full Democratic caucus. He defeated three other Democrats — including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez — in that contest, winning the position by a 150-63 vote.

Garcia’s quick rise has been credited in part to his choice of chief of staff: Robert Edmonson, a longtime chief of staff to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has helped Garcia navigate the House.

Garcia was elected to Congress in 2022 after serving as the youngest mayor of Long Beach, California. He led the city’s pandemic response while dealing with the loss of both his parents to COVID-19 just weeks apart in July 2020. Born in Peru, he first came to the United States with his mother when he was 5 years old and became a citizen while in college.

Robert Garcia, then-mayor of Long Beach, California, speaks to people protesting police brutality outside Long Beach City Hall in 2020. Ashley Landis/AP

Garcia told NOTUS that his “Congress hero” is Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the former top Democrat on the Oversight Committee. Garcia, who has a note of encouragement from Raskin hanging in his Cannon office, said it’s “so bizarre to me that I’m now in that job.” Garcia and Raskin, who is now the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, plan to work together on investigations if the party wins the majority in the midterms.

The Californian would lead a committee that over the past 30 years has become among the most polarizing on Capitol Hill, known better for its investigative work and high-profile oversight hearings than legislating. The panel’s work has ranged from partisan probes into the financial dealings of President Joe Biden and Bill Clinton to high-profile investigations into the use of steroids in baseball and the COVID-19 response. Its leaders have often been regulars on cable news shows.

As for future targets, Democrats have a particular interest in Blanche after former Attorney General Pam Bondi told the Oversight panel last month that he was “in charge” of the “entire release of the Epstein files,” according to a transcript of the interview. Under Bondi and Blanche, who was then deputy attorney general, the Justice Department released around 3.5 million pages of documents related to the Epstein investigation, but withheld more than 2 million pages, citing the privacy of victims, privileged information and other legally protected content.

Democrats insist the paper trail does not stop with those Justice files. Garcia said Democrats would target banks to demand financial documents related to Epstein and work with the late sex offender’s estate to produce additional information.

Garcia and other Democrats have made it clear they’re willing to use contempt proceedings against Trump officials if they refuse to comply with subpoenas. It’s certain to set up standoffs and bitter exchanges with administration officials and allies who are forced to testify.

Garcia pointed to the Democrats’ attempt to hold Bondi in contempt when she did not appear for a deposition earlier this year. Shortly after Democrats filed their contempt resolution, Bondi agreed to a new interview date with the panel.

“I would anticipate in a Democratic Congress that that battle will begin on day one or week one,” Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Virginia), a freshman member of the Oversight panel, told NOTUS. “They’re gonna refuse to comply with subpoenas; they’re going to refuse to cooperate with lawful oversight investigations and requests. We’ll have to be prepared to use the full power of the Congress and the law on behalf of the American people to make sure that all happens.”

Reps. Robert Garcia and James Walkinshaw speak with reporters after former Attorney General Pam Bondi was questioned by the House Oversight Committee on May 29. Tom Williams/AP

The release of the Epstein files came only after a bipartisan push in the House. Garcia praised lawmakers on the Oversight panel for voting across party lines multiple times to force subpoenas during its Epstein investigation. But he said the bipartisanship cooperation has slowed, and “in the last few months, it feels like Republicans have decided that they’re done.”“Todd Blanche has said this investigation is over; the president’s called it a hoax. They’ve stonewalled getting information,” Garcia said. “So it’s clear that’s been the direction, I think probably from the White House.”

Still, Garcia said bipartisan oversight “should be the goal” and appealed to Republican members to support potential investigations next year. Garcia said he and Comer “disagree very strongly” on which issues to focus on but have to “work together to run the committee.”

Other Democrats have jumped at the idea of investigating the Trump family. California Rep. Ro Khanna said the panel must investigate “the corruption” and “the president’s many ways of enriching himself.”

But a plan to aggressively probe the president and his family comes with risks. Democrats would be targeting the first family just a few years after Republicans on the Oversight Committee ran their own sprawling probe into then-President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Many Democrats argued that the investigation was a witch hunt designed solely to sling political dirt at a president who was running for reelection, noting it fell short of proving a bribery scheme involving Hunter Biden.

With House majorities flipping more frequently, lawmakers are essentially working in two-year windows to complete their probes. One Democratic staffer involved in congressional investigations emphasized that bank records can take years to produce, and the Trump White House is likely to drag out its compliance with subpoenas. Biting off more than you can chew, the source argued, threatened to leave Democrats offering the public only interim reports on investigations.

Another way to get around White House stonewalling, Democrats said, was to investigate outside entities that they believe have cooperated with the Trump administration. Those outside organizations, Democrats argued, don’t have the same tools to dodge committee inquiries.

Rep. Garcia speaks to survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a House Oversight Committee hearing on May 12. Rebecca Blackwell/AP

“If you’re a big corporation and you are ripping off the American people, you better watch out for Oversight,” Garcia said. “If you’re a big corporation and you’re working with the administration on corruption, or funneling money to the Trump family, you better watch out for Oversight.”

Garcia conceded that the Oversight Committee has launched some “super partisan” efforts in the past, but he argued the best way to cut through the partisan lens of an investigation is to highlight the “government reform” part of the committee’s work. He argued one major objective of the panel’s work is to make government “work better” and be “more efficient.”

For some Democrats, that means focusing on the cuts that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency made early in the president’s second term. Walkinshaw said Democrats should probe the mass firings of federal employees and the destruction of government programs, even though “it feels like a long time ago now that DOGE was burrowing into agencies and violating the law.”

Khanna agreed that Democrats “need to hold them accountable for the firing of civil servants and push to reinstate civil servants and hold DOGE accountable for what they did.”