Abstract:
Robert Garcia, a senior member of the Democratic Party of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee, recently stated that if the Democratic Party wins control of the House of Representatives in the November midterm elections, he will "actively" investigate the so-called "Trump crime family" and its business partners and billionaire allies, and will question Elon Musk's behavior during his time at the "Department of Government Efficiency."
Garcia said that if he controls the committee's agenda, his biggest focus will be the "Trump crime family." He stressed that anyone associated with Trump or involved in American businesses will respond to Congress. He called Trump guilty of "crime" and "impeachable offenses," arguing that it was Democrats' responsibility to build the case and provide evidence.
During the midterm election campaign, Democrats, especially Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, compared the Trump family's alleged self-enrichment with the U.S. affordability crisis in their bid to win back the House and Senate. Reports have revealed that the Trump family made at least US$1 billion last year through various cryptocurrency businesses. Corporate donors in the crypto and tech sectors have close ties to the first family and gain access to the president, in part through legal relief or pardons, government contracts or policy changes. Garcia called the scale and scope of alleged corruption in the Trump family and administration "outrageous."
Garcia said he has multiple questions for Donald Trump Jr., including how some of the businesses his company invested in received multimillion-dollar Pentagon contracts and why a Russian businessman spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to celebrate his wedding in the Bahamas. There are reports that shortly after Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital invested in rare earth start-up Vulcan Elements, the company received a $620 million loan from the Pentagon; the drone company Unusual Machines he supports received a military contract. A spokesman for Trump Jr. has consistently said he is not negotiating with the government on behalf of the 1789 portfolio companies. Pentagon officials said no company received preferential treatment and that outside affiliations, investors or political connections played no role in funding decisions. The White House stated that the Democratic Party has no agenda to improve the lives of the American people, but only obstructs and unprovoked plans to target Trump's common sense agenda; Trump's stock portfolio is independently managed by a third-party financial institution, and all investment decisions are made by independent managers, with no conflict of interest.
When the Democratic Party was in the minority, Garcia had tried to investigate Trump Jr., Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, as well as Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and others. They all deny any wrongdoing. Garcia said that if the Democrats are in power, the House Oversight Committee will continue to investigate the Jeffrey Epstein case and will focus on the "abuse" involved in Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the corporate "plundering of the American public." He was also interested in Trump's push to build a new White House ballroom, the Arc de Triomphe and renovate the reflecting pool, and had "a lot of questions" about Musk's conduct while leading the Department of Government Effectiveness. While in the minority, Garcia and other Democrats sent letters to Chevron, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips investigating their involvement in White House plans to control Venezuelan oil. The investigation into Trump’s ballroom donors may involve major American companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Palantir. Garcia said the committee must focus on the most serious corruption allegations and set priorities carefully.
Garcia was elected to the House of Representatives in 2022 and quickly became the Democratic leader of the Oversight Committee. He immigrated to the United States from Peru as a child and became a naturalized citizen in his 20s. He was elected mayor of Long Beach, California in 2014. He is the first gay immigrant member of Congress. He learned English from comic books and hung a portrait of Superman in his Washington office. Some fellow Democrats worry that pushing for the president's impeachment could become a political mistake and distract from the party's positive agenda. Garcia said Democrats' top priority should be "slowing and stopping the Trump agenda," but that health care and economic legislation was "someone else's job." "My job is... to hold people accountable for the injustice, crime and corruption that is causing people to lose trust in government," he said.
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