Counsel to the president William Scharf, in a letter to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., warned against Democrats running afoul of their allotted powers pertaining to investigations and subpoenas.
But Garcia — who is poised to chair the committee next year when Democrats gain the House majority — fired back, asserting that President Donald Trump’s administration is weaponizing the government.
“I write to remind you of the foundational limits that the Constitution imposes on congressional investigations and subpoenas, which you and members of the new Congress have evinced a clear intent to transgress,” Scharf wrote in part of the letter.
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Republicans suffered a drubbing during the 2026 midterms and will consequently be the minority in both chambers of Congress next year.
In a statement on Election Day last week, Garcia warned, “Lawyer up.”
Rep. Emily Randall, D-Wash., who is also on the committee, declared in a post last week on the social media platform Bluesky, “We’re going to be passing out subpoenas like candy.”
In his letter, Scharf asserted, “We are monitoring the abusive and capricious threats that are now proliferating from Democrat legislators who seek to abuse the legislative process to intimidate and to interfere with the lawful functioning of government. Recent public statements underscore these concerns. You and your congressional colleagues have asserted that they will issue subpoenas to harass, threaten, and deter dedicated members of the Administration from further service.”
“Compulsory process is a power Congress has for oversight functions, and only for oversight functions. Abusive threats and public statements about the indiscriminate issuance of subpoenas, along with threats directed at prospective targets within the Administration make it abundantly clear that any forthcoming investigative processes will be deployed to harass and aggrandize, rather than to advance any legitimate legislative end,” Scharf’s letter stated.
“Beyond being inconsistent with the clear, well-recognized constitutional limitations on your investigative functions, threats to executive branch officials designed to deter them from public service, or process designed merely to abuse or instill fear in the recipient may cross the line into blatant criminality,” the letter continued. “And issuing unlawful subpoenas with the intention of depriving citizens of their constitutional rights and privileges may warrant further investigation.”
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Responding to the letter, Garcia suggested in a statement that the president is hiding something from the public.
“It appears Donald Trump has something to hide. Let’s be clear: Congress’ authority comes from Article I of the Constitution, not from the permission of the White House. Congress has wide latitude to conduct investigations and oversight, an authority inherent in the power to legislate,” Garcia said in his statement.
“The American people voted overwhelmingly for us to pass laws to root out corruption and abuse. The Trump Administration continues to weaponize the government with threats of unconstitutional attacks on Congress. We are a co-equal branch of government and will not be deterred by baseless threats from a weaponized DOJ or from the President’s lawyers,” Garcia stated.
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The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Wednesday.
