US Attorney Asks Senator Richard Blumenthal to Preserve Documents from His White House Ballroom Investigation

A Justice Department official on Wednesday called on Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, to preserve documents related to what he claims was harassment of citizens during Blumenthal’s investigation into White House ballroom donors, threatening him with “significant legal consequences” if he does not comply.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Aaron Reitz said in a letter to Blumenthal that his investigation amounted to threatening “citizens who associate with the President and other public officials.” The White House warned congressional Democrats on Wednesday that efforts to investigate the administration could constitute a crime.

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“I am taking the first step to end this abuse of power,” Reitz said.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Trent McCotter, the Justice Department’s second-highest official, responded to Reitz’s post by saying, “The First Amendment expressly prohibits Congress from infringing on Americans’ rights of expression and association.” »

“The DOJ will defend itself against threats to these rights, period,” McCotter wrote.

Blumenthal said in a statement responding to the letter that he “will not be intimidated,” pledging to “vigorously pursue investigations into this administration’s continued misuse of taxpayer dollars and any business entity that enabled their unbridled corruption.”

“The Trump Administration is so afraid of transparency and oversight that it is using the Justice Department as a weapon to baselessly target Congress, in direct violation of the Constitution,” Blumenthal wrote.

Blumenthal is the ranking Democrat on the Permanent Investigating Subcommittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The subcommittee is charged with studying the economy and efficiency of government operations.

Blumenthal sent letters last month to a list of people identified by a Washington Post article as having donated private funds to the ballroom’s construction. A press release said he was “conducting an investigation into waste, fraud and abuse associated with the White House Ballroom and other projects in the nation’s capital.”

President Donald Trump had pledged to disclose the names of private donors, but he has only made a partial list public. A few donors have acknowledged their donations, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who is under investigation by the company and the FBI for an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. Trump defended Huang in remarks to reporters this week.

Reitz’s letter cited the federal Anti-Rights Conspiracy Act, as well as the federal Collegiate Disenfranchisement Act.

Such an open investigative action against a sitting member of Congress would typically have undergone a thorough review process within the Justice Department’s Office of Public Integrity, but that office was downsized and sidelined during Trump’s second term.

A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement that “the Department routinely requests that records be preserved when public officials take such extreme measures,” alleging that Blumenthal’s letters were an attempt to “suppress their First Amendment activities, including their philanthropic practices.”

Reitz, former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, led the Justice Department’s legal policy office for a few months last year before launching an unsuccessful campaign for Texas attorney general. He has been the U.S. attorney since July.

Trump’s ballroom project faced a series of legal hurdles, but the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in August that it could continue indefinitely.