Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has given voters a preview of what a Democratic House would do with its subpoena power: go after the Trump family’s business dealings. Asked on CNN on Monday, Oct. 5, who would get his first subpoena if he becomes Judiciary chairman, Raskin said Democrats will be in “a much stronger position to go after it and to stop it once we get back into power.”
He did not name a single target. He did not have to. In the same answer, he laid out a list of investigations aimed squarely at the president, his family and his administration, a month before Election Day.
“Who is your first subpoena?”
The exchange came on CNN’s The Arena. Host Kasie Hunt noted that if Democrats take back the House, Raskin is in line for the chairmanship, “and of course, that comes with the power of subpoena. What are your top, top priorities in a role like that? Who is your first subpoena?”
Raskin’s reply, according to CNN’s transcript: “Well, you know, with 30 days to go before the election, we probably have 30 more scandals and episodes of corruption that are about to erupt, so I can’t give you a precise ranking.”
He then ran through the list. He said Democrats are investigating what he called pay-to-play pardons, claiming $1.7 billion that pardoned offenders owed to victims or taxpayers had been forgiven. He said they are looking at “all of the government contracting fraud that’s taking place and the fact that the Trump family is making hundreds of millions, billions of dollars from contractors, from foreign government contracts, from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, from Qatar, the $400 million jet from Qatar.”
His summary: “They’ve turned the entire executive branch of government into a moneymaking operation, and we’re going to expose every facet of the corruption. We’ve been trying to document it the best we can without the subpoena power.”
Raskin’s figures are his own claims, offered without detail on CNN. Earlier in the same segment he asserted that the president had made “$2.4 billion at least on the side in his first year in office.”
A pattern, not a pledge
This is not a new posture for Raskin. In May 2026, during a Judiciary Committee hearing, he moved to subpoena five senior administration officials, including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, over the administration’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” according to HuffPost. “I move that the committee now immediately subpoena those involved,” he said then. In the minority, a motion like that needs Republican votes. In the majority, it would simply be an order.
What stands out about the CNN answer is not that a Democrat wants to investigate a Republican president. It is the order of operations. Asked for priorities, Raskin answered with a conclusion, corruption in “every facet” of the executive branch, and promised the evidence would follow once he has the power to compel it. He even predicted “30 more scandals” that he said were about to erupt, before anyone knows what they are.
What a Judiciary gavel means
A committee chairman’s subpoena is not a press release. It can compel bank records, business partners and private citizens who have never held office to produce documents and appear for testimony. Raskin’s answer singled out the Trump family’s business dealings, which could put relatives and private partners at the center of two years of hearings.
Hunt also asked Raskin about a warning from Kamala Harris that Republicans might refuse to seat Democrats who win in November. He said they have “no authority and no right” to do so, and that Democrats have “teams of lawyers all over America” defending the integrity of the election. On that point, he is right: no one should block a certified winner from taking his or her seat. The same principle of fair process ought to apply to the people his committee would summon.
Voters can weigh all of this for themselves. But they should be clear about what is on offer. Raskin was not describing an investigation in search of facts. He was describing a two-year campaign of subpoenas whose target list is already written, running straight into the 2028 presidential race.
Raskin just told voters the verdict, and promised to hold the trial after he gets the gavel.
Sources
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