Democrats say the majority of the House would mean a barrage of investigation, not an indictment: NPR

For many Americans, "impeachment" could become the end of the day if Democrats take control of the House in mid-term elections next week. But party leaders say they want to focus on a different word: investigations.

Minority leader Nancy Pelosi and her lieutenants said they wanted to adopt the important control powers that Democrats would win over the majority.

These include subpoenas and public hearings, which Democrats could use to block the Trump administration by training senior officials to testify and keeping the alleged facts (large or small) within reach of the public.

Three committees in particular – control, judiciary and intelligence – are about to lead the charge.

Rank Members Representatives Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Control, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Intelligence and Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Of the Judiciary, rubbed under Republican control of their committees.

"This country has a number of emergencies currently under the jurisdiction of this committee and we do not spend any time or attention [on] – the main one is obviously the fact that 3,000 children were illegally abducted from their families, "said Nadler this summer.

The Judicial Committee Chair's representative, Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Convened a controversial 10-hour hearing in July featuring Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who had sent private anti-Trump SMS messages during his investigation of Russia.

Nadler was not impressed.

"It's a more immediate concern than this hearing, of course," he said.

Democrat leaders say they have dozens of subpoenas and investigative leads they want to follow. Becoming president in January would allow them to move forward.

Cold front

A new barrage of surveillance investigations that would follow a takeover of the House by Democrats mark a shocking change for the White House.

In the past two years, President Trump has benefited from a Republican-controlled House and Senate. This has resulted in investigations conducted by the GOP largely aimed at to the FBI and others who are investigating the interference of Russia in the elections, not to the Trump administration itself

In the case of the House Intelligence Committee chaired by its current Republican President, California Representative Devin Nunes, the committee concluded its investigation of Russia with the conclusion that neither Trump nor his campaign had committed wrongdoing.

Congressional control by the GOP also allowed the president's allies to oppose the investigation over Russia with counter-speech – as a theory of the anti-Trump plot "of a state deep ", of which Strzok is a star.

At the same time, Republican allies used their majority in the House to put pressure on those involved in court cases. Russia investigates, for example, repeatedly threatening to despise the head of the investigation, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Republicans defend their surveillance record, especially with regard to the investigation of Russia.

Four FBI officials, including the former director and the deputy director of the bureau, were removed from office, and the FBI and the Justice Ministry were late in providing the information they owe to Congress , argued Goodlatte and others.

Democrats disagree. And Schiff, the House's top democrat intelligence committee, accused the Republican-run Congress of not investigating or investigating Trump White House.

"Worse, he has also been complicit in some of the president's most egregious attacks on our democratic institutions," Schiff recently wrote. The Washington Post.

The gentleman from Maryland

The main investigative body of the House is traditionally the Government Oversight and Reform Committee. The biggest Democrat, Cummings, managed to push the administration while remaining a minority.

Cummings released a number of documents that questioned the finances and foreign contacts of Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser, who resigned after less than a month of work.

Flynn has since pleaded guilty to having lied to the FBI and is collaborating with the investigation of special advocate Robert Mueller in Russia.

If Democrats win the House, Cummings says that as president of the watch, he would focus on the basics.

"Waste, fraud and abuse are obvious," he said. "The most important thing for the oversight committee is to go back to the usual order by getting documents and interviewing witnesses, and holding the Trump government accountable to the American people."

The committee, he said, must look into the daily problems of most Americans, such as access to health care, the right to vote, the cost of prescription drugs, the reform of the postal system and census questions.

Cummings and his Democratic Committee colleagues say they have more than 60 citations to appear that Republicans have blocked since Trump's inauguration. If they claim the hammer, the Democrats are planning to tap into this reserve as early as January.

The Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, for their part, also have topics they are considering digging for, if the opportunity arises.

These include the FBI's additional background investigation by Justice Brett Kavanaugh of the Supreme Court and a possible perjury issue; firing at the FBI; the radical immigration policy of the administration; and the decision of the Department of Justice not to defend the Affordable Care Act of constitutional challenges.

The game of spying

The intelligence committee, meanwhile, is likely to resuscitate some aspects of its investigation of Russia. The Republicans shut down the investigation in March, with no connection between the Trump campaign and Russia's war of misinformation against the West.

Democrats rejected the GOP's findings as well as the decision to close the investigation. They say the Republicans conducted an unsubstantiated investigation that refused to pursue investigations, compel witnesses to testify or assign critical documents.

"We will make an assessment of the remaining work and unanswered questions in the investigation of Russia," said Schiff. "We are determined to provide a full account of Russia's interference in the last election, as promised by both parties in the beginning, but the GOP subsequently abandoned its responsibilities."

The Democrats want to consider other points that, in their view, will help unveil the complete picture of Russia's interference and influence in the 2016 elections.

This includes, said a congressional source, questions about whether the Trump campaign was using data that had been poorly acquired, as well as allegations that the Trump organization could have been used for money laundering. # 39; money.

This, in turn, merges with questions about the president's finances, a topic on which the Democrats are ready to investigate.

The main target on this front is the president's tax returns. Trump, despite many public criticism, broke the precedent and refused to disclose his tax returns, thus protecting his finances from control.

This could lead to committee gavels in the hands of Democrats, who could ask for these documents and put them under a public microscope. That power would go to the House Ways and Means Committee as part of a tool called "access to committees".