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Today, top Democrats are rolling out their plans to subpoena the CEOs and the big law firms that rolled over for Donald Trump once the new majorities are sworn in this coming January. The Trump White House is quietly beefing up its legal team in anticipation of a wave of investigations from Democrats. Outgoing Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky says he’s got enough votes from members of his own party to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during the lame duck session that gavels in next week. And after Democrats in five swing states won state government trifectas, they may now have the power to legislate the Electoral College completely out of existence without having to amend the Constitution.
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As you’ll read below, the MAGA billionaires and CEOs who spent the last two years bowing down to Trump are already gearing up for investigations. This could potentially include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk, whose algorithms are actively preventing Raw America’s stories from reaching our followers on those platforms. But by subscribing, you can make sure these stories come directly to your inbox, which the billionaires can’t touch. Will you make today the day you officially join as a paying subscriber?
If you missed it, click here to watch our full interview from last night with Congresswoman Delia Ramirez of Illinois — the #2 Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee — in which she discussed her plans to subpoena top Trump administration officials.
Top Democrats in the House of Representatives set to retake committee gavels have lately been going through a 181-page dossier that names hundreds of CEOs and corporations they could investigate beginning in January. Think tank Groundwork Collaborative created the document, which was spearheaded by former staffers for Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The dossier focuses on big tech companies, artificial intelligence firms, fossil fuel corporations, private prison operators, nursing home conglomerates and dozens of other major industries that the Groundwork Collaborative blames for the ongoing affordability crisis. The document makes the case for a relentless stream of televised public hearings in which corporate CEOs get dragged in front of major committees and face pressure to resign and/or pay restitution to consumers.
Some of the specific ideas laid out in the dossier include putting corporate landlords under oath to testify about squeezing tenants with junk fees. The document also makes the case for publicly grilling the heads of online sports gambling companies who are reportedly using AI to encourage users to engage in compulsive gambling. Groundwork is also calling for major grocery chains to disclose how they use the data they’ve mined from shoppers over the years.
Groundwork senior vice president Alex Jacquez is arguing that stories like Trump’s gifted jet from the Qatari royal family and his $400 million White House ballroom only motivate Democrats who are already fiercely opposed to the president. Jacquez instead wants the new majorities to be “laser-focused on the pain points and the corporations people blame for jacking up their prices.”
The plan is sparking debate, as centrist-leaning groups like the Progressive Policy Institute and Third Way believe that attacking corporations could potentially alienate voters ahead of the 2028 election and complicate Democrats’ argument to stay in power. The House Judiciary Committee’s incoming chairman, Democrat Jamie Raskin of Maryland, is also not sure about the effectiveness of targeting specific companies, and said the focus should instead be on “systems and networks of corruption.”
However, the dossier is still garnering attention from powerful lawmakers like Elizabeth Warren, who is set to chair the influential Senate Banking Committee, and Bernie Sanders, who will lead the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Other progressive senators like Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island — who will chair the Judiciary Committee — and Ron Wyden — who will retake the Finance Committee’s gavel — could play a role in how much of the dossier’s plans get implemented.
In the House, Raskin is also setting his sights on the big law firms that cut deals with the Trump White House in early 2025. Those deals eliminated those firms’ pro bono work for immigrants, gutted diversity, equity and inclusion programs and paved the way for those firms to do hundreds of millions of dollars in free work to advance Trump’s goals.
Raskin has already sent official letters to the firms Kirkland & Ellis, Skadden, Paul Weiss, Latham & Watkins and several others requesting the full details on how those deals were negotiated. So far, none of them have complied. Raskin told MS NOW last night that those law firms “have basically surrendered and made all sorts of outrageous concessions.” He aims to use his new subpoena powers to compel them to testify before his committee.
There’s past precedent for this, and it proved successful. In 1933, investigator Ferdinand Pecora hauled J.P. Morgan and some of the most powerful bankers in America in front of the Senate Banking Committee. Those hearings didn’t just humiliate Wall Street, but paved the way for historic victories like the Glass-Steagall Act and the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Televised oversight isn’t just theater for the cameras when it results in real progress.
Meanwhile, the Trump White House is publicly telegraphing a message of defiance. But behind closed doors, officials are apparently in a state of panic.
Four current and former Trump administration staffers recently told NBC News that the White House has been quietly prepping for Democratic investigations in Congress since well before the election. The office of the White House Counsel has been busy adding more staff and is scrambling to set up protocols on how to handle looming inquiries from Democratic-led House and Senate committees.
Current and former White House officials have also been lawyering up on their own. Some former Trump staffers are reportedly rejecting offers to work for the White House again because they’re leary of being grilled publicly on C-SPAN.
Democrats haven’t been subtle about their plans. Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia of California, who will chair the House Oversight Committee in January, posted a two-word statement on his social media channels after the House was officially called for Democrats: “Lawyer up.” Senator Wyden has a one-word statment of his own that simply read: “Subpoenas.” And House Homeland Security Committee vice-ranking member Delia Ramirez of Illinois — who will chair the committee’s subcommittee on oversight — posted to Bluesky that various Trump DHS officials should “clear your schedule.” Ramirez spoke with Raw America last night about her plans to subpoena former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, current DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, border czar Tom Homan and former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino if they don’t comply with her request to volunteer their testimonies.
Garcia has identified four key subjects for his own committee to pursue: Trump family’s moneymaking ventures; the backroom financial dealings between former Noem and senior advisor (and rumored paramour) Corey Lewandowski, corporate corruption and Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged co-conspirators. Wyden aims to probe the Trump administration’s drug pricing deals with Big Pharma, and Reuters is reporting that both Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, could also be ordered to testify.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis dismissed Democrats’ efforts as “sham investigations.” An anonymous White House official ominously warned that Democrats should be aware that the Trump administration still controls federal agencies.
When it comes to impeachment, Democrats still have yet to come to a consensus. Even if the House impeached Trump for a third time, a conviction would require 67 votes in the Senate. Even if Democrats win their maximum potential of 56 seats, they would still need 11 Republican votes. When Trump was asked whether he was worried about another impeachment, he answered “not even a little bit.”
The White House may be able to hire an army of lawyers, but the Supreme Court already settled this fight nearly a century ago. In McGrain v. Daugherty — the Teapot Dome case from 1927 — justices handed down a unanimous ruling that Congress can’t legislate without the power to investigate. That means committee subpoenas are just as constitutional as the veto.
While Trump may have launched the war with Iran that helped contribute to Republicans’ blowout losses on Tuesday, plenty of people inside his own party are now eager to find a scapegoat. And right now, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in the hot seat.
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky recently told CNN he’s aiming to force a vote to impeach Hegseth when Congress returns for its lame duck session next week. Multiple Republican sources say they expect the resolution to pass. That’s a significant development, as Republicans will still have control of the House of Representatives until January 3.
Several Republicans told the network that Hegseth vastly oversold how quickly and easily the United States would defeat Iran, and that he continued to escalate hostilities even as constant bombing failed to compel the Iranian government to surrender. Those same Republicans now say the war has become an unwinnable quagmire that’s worsened the cost of living crisis and turned voters against them. Even Vice President JD Vance recently posted a lengthy post-election statement arguing “the reason we lost is the war.”
One source close to the Trump White House said that Hegseth more than anyone should take responsibility for Tuesday night, accusing him of being “either dishonest or incorrect” about the Iran war’s timelines and goals from the very beginning.
Trump is still obstinately behind Hegseth. White House officials say the president is a personal fan of Hegseth, even telling him he’s “the best guy I have.” Trump maintains his defense secretary is doing a very good job, and he’s so far shown zero regret about launching the war that’s now dragged on for nearly nine months with no end in sight.
The Pentagon is also circling the wagons. Defense Department chief spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth won’t be sidelined by “phony investigations” and is committed to staying in his pos through the end of Trump’s second term.
Some in the president’s orbit are scoffing at Hegseth’s defiant attitude. One unnamed administration official said Hegseth likely knows his career is over but is angling for a dramatic exit so he can use as a springboard for a potential 2028 presidential run.
Massie is instead arguing that Republicans didn’t suffer staggering losses over any one single issue, and instead argued that the apocalyptic midterm results could have been avoided were it not for the GOP’s “cultish following of Donald Trump.”
There’s only ever been two Cabinet secretaries in American history who have ever been impeached. One was Biden DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024, and the other ran the same agency Hegseth runs now. Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached by a unanimous House in 1876 over a corruption scheme, and he resigned from his position just hours before the actual vote. If Massie pulls this off, Hegseth joins a club of two.
Tell Congress: impeach Pete Hegseth for his murderous crimes!
This last story might be the biggest long-term development to come out of Tuesday’s elections. Democrats may now be in a position to effectively end the Electoral College without a constitutional amendment.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact commits member states to award their electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote. Since 2006, 19 states have signed on, adding up to 222 electoral votes. The compact only kicks in once it reaches 270.
On Tuesday, Democrats won full control of the legislature and governor’s office in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada. None of those states has joined the compact yet. If all five sign on, the total jumps to 283, which is more than enough.
That’s a big if, though. Michigan Democrats had a trifecta from 2023 to 2024 and didn’t pass it. Nevada’s Democratic governor vetoed it back in 2019, arguing it would weaken the state’s role in presidential races.
There’s also a constitutional wrinkle. The Constitution lets state legislatures decide how to appoint electors, but it also bars interstate compacts without the consent of Congress. A Democratic Congress could approve the compact, and in theory it wouldn’t need the president’s signature. But Democrats are well short of 60 votes in the Senate, and Republicans would almost certainly try to block it. That’s no surprise, given that four of the five presidents who won the White House while losing the popular vote were Republicans, Donald Trump in 2016 included.
Article II says each state appoints its electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct,” and James Madison himself told the Constitutional Convention that direct popular election was the fittest way to choose a president. The compact isn’t an end run around the Founders. It’s the Founders’ own language being used exactly the way they wrote it.
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I’m Thom Hartmann. Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting independent media. Before you go, help us get these stories in front of the people who really need them by clicking the ❤️ and hitting restack. Those two clicks help immensely.