Donald Trump’s criminal investigation into Representative Ilhan Omar—which is aimed at stripping her citizenship—is far more than just another attack on a vocal critic. As many have noted, this denaturalization push is an assault on the constitutional order itself. It amounts to a declaration of dictatorial or czar-like power, in which the sovereign can declare any foe an “enemy of the people” at will and delegitimize even the opposition’s duly elected representatives by fiat.
All of which raises a question: Can Democrats do anything about this? Well, yes, they actually can.
Senior House Democrats tell me they’re discussing a dramatic step, should they win the majority: wielding the power of the purse against the illicit persecution of Trump critics. This could entail targeted efforts to defund investigations and prosecutions ordered up baselessly by Trump. Democrats also plan to extensively deploy subpoena power against officials at many levels to expose the corrupt processes by which Trump orders underlings to carry out these directives—including the investigation and expected prosecution of Omar.
“We will actively and aggressively investigate this case,” Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington state, told me. “We will probably have legislation to make sure there are no funds expended on this investigation.”
Representative Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who will chair the Judiciary Committee in a Democratic majority, adds that his committee will confer with Democratic appropriators to develop a kind of joint defunding strategy against corrupt prosecutions.
“We have the power of the purse,” Raskin told me. “We’ll be working closely with our Appropriations Committee partners to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to cut off money that is being used for political harassment and persecution.”
Jayapal, Raskin, and more than 170 other House Democrats just sent a letter—obtained by The New Republic—sharply condemning Trump’s action against Omar.
“This weaponization of law enforcement to harass a sitting Member of Congress 22 days before an election is unprecedented and unacceptable,” reads the letter, which is addressed to Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “We demand you refrain from taking further actions,” it continues, emphasizing: “We stand with Congresswoman Omar.”
The letter—which is also led by Representatives Robert Garcia and Bennie Thompson, ranking Democrats on the Oversight and Homeland Security committees—is notable for the strong backing it shows for Omar within leadership and the caucus and for what it telegraphs about how a Democratic majority might proceed. It highlights grave substantive problems with the operation against Omar, calling the attempt itself “incompatible with our democracy.”
To wit: The administration is reportedly building a case for denaturalizing the 44-year-old Omar by showing that her father falsified her naturalization form by claiming she was 17 at the time, when she was supposedly 18. Homeland Security agents executed an October 12 search warrant secured by the Justice Department on the Washington-area home of Omar—a Somalian refugee who arrived here in 1995 as a teenager—seizing her phone and many other items.
That alone appears highly irregular. As the Democrats write, a “pre-dawn raid on her home” is not justified by questions about “paperwork her father filed when she was a minor.” The move also violates DOJ protocol about executing search warrants close to an election.
What’s more, the Democrats’ letter cites extensive public statements from Trump and top supporters—he’s called her “garbage” and presided over rally chants of “send her back”—that reveal deeply corrupt motives behind the prosecution. Indeed, it’s plainly driven by Trump’s racial animus and zeal to exile a critic from the country.
And as the letter suggests, Trump apparently ordered the prosecution of many other critics, including six lawmakers who urged military servicemembers not to carry out illegal orders. Not coincidentally, those are also sitting members of Congress that Trump sought to humble.
Notably, officials during Trump’s first administration looked into this Omar theory and found no basis for it. Regardless, even if Omar’s father did falsify the form, it’s not at all clear Omar herself would be liable for it. So the targeting of Omar will likely fail, as those other prosecutions have. But simply waiting for that to happen isn’t enough.
Instead, Democrats are signaling that the deployment of all kinds of tactics against such persecutions is on the table. Employing aggressive oversight, a Democratic House could subpoena all communications between Trump, the White House, DOJ, and DHS about the targeting of Omar. Trump has claimed he didn’t personally direct DOJ’s decision to pursue Omar; internal communications might show otherwise.
Democrats can also encourage whistleblowers to come forward and subpoena the investigation of Omar that was done under Trump 1.0. They can seek testimony from mid-level officials being directed to carry out the Omar investigation to establish corrupted processes and internal opposition. As Jayapal, also a member of the Judiciary Committee, told me: “Assuming the elections go the way we want, that’ll be more incentive for people to come forward.”
“Everybody involved from top to bottom will be subject to legislative investigation,” Raskin added.
Beyond Omar, Democrats say they’ll probe mid-level actors involved in corrupt prosecutions in a broader sense. This could be consequential. Note that when Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin recently suggested Congress should target obscure officials executing Trump’s corrupt schemes, MAGA threw a phony outrage-fit. Trump does need mid-level bureaucrats and lawyers to carry out high-level corruption, and targeting them with legitimate investigations would threaten his lawless project.
Then there’s the power of the purse. Deploying this will invoke many complexities involving how exactly to target particular investigations or departments for defunding. But critically, Democrats say they’re currently exploring how to carry out this move.
“Because Trump is so lawless, we have got to use the appropriations power as carefully as we can to prevent violations of people’s constitutional rights,” Raskin told me.
Is this feasible? Yes, says Georgetown professor Josh Chafetz, author of a good book on Congress and its powers. He notes that DOJ will likely argue that it’s unconstitutional for Congress to interfere with individual prosecutorial decisions, but Democrats would have a good case anyway.
“Congress can do almost whatever it wants with the power of the purse,” Chafetz told me, adding that it can “put whatever conditions it wants” on the executive’s use of appropriations, so long as those conditions are not themselves unconstitutional. Democrats can also try to write broader limits into appropriations bills against investigations ordered up directly by Trump under illicit conditions, Chafetz says.
Trump will of course oppose such moves. Could that lead to government funding showdowns? Yes, it could. Fine: Let Republicans defend these corrupt prosecutions in fights over keeping the government open as Trump drags them ever downward. And yes, this will all be endlessly litigated. Bring it on.
Because the bottom line is this: Democrats have to try. Again and again, Trump has expressly commanded law enforcement to simply disregard what facts and law dictate in the quest to target Democratic critics. And as TNR’s Michael Tomasky writes, the stakes are particularly high with Omar. Trump has unleashed the power of the state on a group—one that includes a whole lot of U.S. citizens—that he’s openly designated an ethnic enemy within. Democrats must get very creative in response. And no legislative tactic—none—should be off the table.
