House Democrats Fear Investigating Trump’s Children, ‘Politico’ Says
President Trump has involved his children more in his presidency than what is typical for presidents, especially when it comes to his three oldest children from his first marriage. His daughter, Ivanka, works in the White House as an adviser, as does her husband, Jared Kushner. While Trump’s sons do not have formal positions in the White House, both Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump regularly appear as surrogates for their father.
The three oldest Trump children have also been mentioned in investigations of their father, both in the Robert Mueller probe and investigations by Congress and other prosecutors. And some Democrats in Congress who are part of the investigations fear that such investigations may backfire.
According to a Politico story published Thursday, senior Democrats “are reluctant to scrutinize Trump’s adult children too much as part of their sprawling probes into Trump’s administration, campaign and business empire.”
The piece says that Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee who presided over last week’s much-watched Michael Cohen hearing, “has privately expressed reservations” about the committee investigating Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, although he did not offer any comment to Politico.
One Democrat on that Oversight committee, Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, was quoted as saying that “Getting to family members I think is dangerous… only because it gets real personal, real fast. And it risks backfiring.”
Connolly added that he would rather let prosecutors deal with possible wrongdoing than having Congress do it.
“Don Jr. is right in the middle of all of this. … He’s like everywhere. And certainly in that case I think he would be fair game for questions,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) told Politico.
Another Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, expressed the need to consider whether family members are part of the government, or not.
https://t.co/QlFU4ytVVU via @politico Democrats fear targeting Trump children could backfire. The Democrats want New York prosecutors to go after Trumps adult children while they attack Trump politically. So they can claim their hands are clean.
— Pog (@OSINT220) March 7, 2019
Donald Trump Jr.,’s name has come up in reference to the infamous “Trump Tower meeting” in 2016 that is being investigated by the Mueller probe, although he has not been indicted. Cohen testified last week that Trump Jr. played a role in the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, which may have been illegal campaign contributions. The three oldest Trump children are also among the dozens of names from which the House Judiciary Committee demanded documents earlier this week.
There are also investigations about Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s security clearances, as well as various Trump Organization, campaign, and inauguration matters that could ensnare Trump’s children.
