The co-equal legislative branch of our government is beginning to act as a co-equal and flex its oversight muscle. We begin today’s roundup with Jill Lawrence’s analysis of the House Judiciary Committee’s request for documents from dozens of people in and around Donald Trump’s orbit:
This isn't overkill, it's playing catch-up. What we’re seeing now is the oversight and scrutiny that should have started on Day One of this administration. It's also laying the foundation for impeachment. [...]
The list of alleged and potential misdeeds grows by the day. There are at least 17 law enforcement investigations that we know of into Trump’s administration, transition, campaign, inauguration, foundation and business, and that is on top of multiple new and ongoing Capitol Hill investigations. Cohen’s public and private testimony last week gave Congress many new avenues to follow up, including new leads on the Trump Tower Moscow project and possible insurance fraud by the Trump Organization. Cohen also said he was talking to federal prosecutors in New York about another investigation into Trump wrongdoing but couldn’t disclose what it was. This could make 18 law enforcement investigations. [...]
The onslaught of congressional investigations is a direct result of House Republicans having shirked their obligations for two years in the face of Trump's norm-shattering, possibly legally compromised presidency.
Michelle Goldberg at
The New York Times points out the importance of televised hearings to create a narrative that weaves together an understandable story:
[S]o far, neither Democrats nor prosecutors have woven the various threads of presidential wrongdoing into a coherent picture, showing how Trump’s shady business practices, opaque finances, vulnerability to blackmail, abuses of power and subservience to foreign autocrats all intersect. Now, however, Democrats have begun a full-spectrum public investigation of the president. [...]
Given the polarization in our politics, there’s no reason to expect the coming hearings to change many minds. What they can do, potentially, is put the question of Trump’s criminality at the center of political life, just as the Watergate hearings did with Nixon. They can create a narrative that even a reality TV impresario can’t control.
More from Michelle Cottle, a member of the The New York Times editorial board:
Little of what Mr. Cohen shared was new, but it was important nonetheless, allowing the public its first opportunity to hear someone with intimate knowledge run through the catalog of the president’s shameless and lawless behavior.
Look for Mr. Nadler’s effort to bring many more such brutal spectacles as he seeks to build his case. This is what oversight looks like. It is not for the faint of heart.
Natasha Bertrand at The Atlantic:
Two House Judiciary Committee sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment freely on the investigation, said some witnesses were asked specific questions “because we’re pretty sure they know” the answer, while other questions were more speculative in nature. But none of the witnesses were hit with completely new document requests that haven’t been asked of them before, by either the special counsel, the Southern District of New York, or various congressional committees. Even more document requests could be sent out to additional witnesses as the investigation moves forward. “This is just the first wave,” one source said. “The committee will continue to make news as the weeks go on.”
The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson analyzes Trump’s CPAC speech:
I realize the speed-of-light news cycle has moved on. I realize anything that happened last week has all but faded into the mists of time. But President Trump’s unhinged performance Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference is surely worth more than a passing shrug. If you had an uncle or a grandpa who sounded so divorced from reality, you’d be urgently concerned.
And Joan Walsh at The Nation reaches this conclusion:
Trump may have come unglued at CPAC because his administration is coming unglued around him.