Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., sent a letter requesting information from Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and from Affinity Partners, the private equity firm Kushner runs, according to an October 9 report.
Garcia cited a congressional investigation into “the unprecedented and dangerous ways in which President Trump and his family have profited directly from their access to power.”
Trump is holding back a portion of his $400 million political war chest to cover his family’s legal bills in case Democrats capture Congress in the Nov. 3, 2026, midterm elections, the report said. The money comes from his MAGA Inc. super PAC, which has raised hundreds of millions. The covered relatives include his son Barron, 20.
The preparations run across the family, including First Lady Melania Trump and Kushner, and span the remaining two years of the president’s term. Trump is 80.
Impeachment Hearings and Investigations
Trump has long held the view that Democrats would likely open impeachment hearings if they retake the Capitol. The House impeached him twice during his first term, and the Senate acquitted him both times.
Trump is said to be angry, though not surprised, by the threats aimed at his relatives. He and his allies are readying the family for two years of investigations.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters on Sept. 17: “We’re going to hold the crooks accountable, beginning on day one.”
Barron Trump and Andrew Tate
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., called in July 2025 for Barron Trump to testify before Congress about his relationship with Andrew Tate, the manosphere figure suspected of rape and sex trafficking.
Barron Trump is reported to admire Tate and is reported to have spoken with him by phone while being fitted for a suit.
Ansari said on the MeidasTouch podcast that the president’s youngest son is an adult with real influence in his father’s orbit. “So he needs to be held accountable if he has committed any wrongdoing,” she said.
The earlier effort to put Barron Trump under oath made no progress in the Republican-controlled House. World Liberty Financial, the Trump cryptocurrency venture, counts him as a founder, a role he shares with his half-brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
Where Democrats Could Look First
Democrats are expected to target first the participants in deals brokered by Trump family members and the corporate donors to the president’s ballroom. Control of the House or the Senate would give them subpoena power and funding for investigative staff, and probes could begin as early as February 2027.
Family dealmaking in crypto, drones, artificial intelligence and prediction markets added an estimated $2.2 billion to Trump’s personal wealth. That growth came over two years.
Trump-linked crypto firms and 1789 Capital, Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, were singled out by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Both cautioned that there is no definitive list of targets yet.
Two letters about Affinity Partners’ dealings with Middle East governments and oil monarchies have gone unanswered by Kushner, Raskin says. Kushner was also representing the United States in diplomatic negotiations during the same period.
Affinity Partners received a $2 billion investment from a fund led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The money came six months after Kushner left office in January 2021.
A Russian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin heavily funded Trump Jr.’s Bahamas wedding. Freshman Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, called for an investigation into the wedding.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has trained his attention on a private developer with ties to Republican campaign committees, the proposed buyer of a portion of Yosemite National Park.
Oil and gas companies won tax breaks, subsidies and looser environmental rules, according to a report released by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. Those gains followed Trump’s request that the industry donate $1 billion during his 2024 campaign, according to the report.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and other Democrats wrote in March to Amazon President and CEO Andy Jassy about the $75 million documentary about Melania Trump. The lawmakers wanted to know whether the project amounted to a bribe, whether it formed part of a pay-to-play arrangement with the administration, or whether it simply lost money at the box office.
Kai Trump, the president’s 19-year-old granddaughter, could also draw scrutiny over her use of White House grounds to promote her eponymous clothing line.
The White House Pushes Back
A White House official told the Daily Mail that Democrats have nothing to run on. The official said Democrats are going after the president, his Cabinet and his relatives rather than offering solutions for voters, and called that approach embarrassing.
The investigations Democrats have aimed at Trump over the past decade drew a denunciation from Spokeswoman Lauren Bis. In a statement, Spokeswoman Olivia Wales said Democrats have no agenda to improve Americans’ lives and that their only plans are to obstruct and target the president’s program.
Every person in Trump’s orbit, and his relatives above all, will be pursued by Democrats, conservative lawyer Mike Davis said. Davis predicted the strategy will cost the party politically.
Companies tied to Trump and his family have already begun preparing. Lawyers are being hired to run internal audits, and crisis communications firms are being retained for public outreach.
Democrats will not be patient, will expect documents quickly and will not tolerate stalling, said Ashley Callen, a lawyer at Jenner & Block who formerly served as general counsel to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
GOP candidates in the midterms should have received more of the $400 million, Republicans have already complained in faulting Trump. Under the plan described in the report, part of that money stays in reserve for lawyers instead.