Letters sent by two key House committees signal the direction of potential investigations next year.
Page A236From§Eachthe morning edition — 12 November 2026
A federal prosecutor orders the senator investigating Trump's ballroom donors to preserve his own records.
As it ran on the front
Before a single subpoena existed, the fight over oversight had already picked its vocabulary. That was last week's column: White House counsel told the incoming Oversight chair that the investigations he had not yet opened were already "blatant criminality." On Nov. 8, Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters that Democrats "are not allowed to just go around threatening existing members of the administration, to go around threatening companies" — and that this was what the president was "extremely worried about." The same week, the Justice Department answered a separate probe, into the donors financing the White House ballroom, by calling the probe itself a threat against Trump supporters.
On Wednesday, the threat got a letterhead. Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, sent Sen. Richard Blumenthal a letter dated Nov. 11 warning him to preserve records tied to his ballroom-donor inquiry. The Hill's account of the letter describes Reitz accusing the senator of using congressional oversight to harass private citizens — the senator who opened the inquiry is now the one told to keep his own files in order.…
…(cont) The same day, Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming chair of House Oversight, sent a warning in the other direction. All together now — the plainest sentence in the whole file: Stephen Miller, the new White House chief of staff, "should be preserving documents," Garcia said.
And in the Senate, Ron Wyden opened a formal investigation into evidence that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "unlawfully lied" to Congress during his 2025 confirmation hearings, citing a Guardian report. Wyden, the incoming chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is seeking records from Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit Kennedy once ran, including everything related to a 2019 trip Kennedy took to Samoa.
Three letters, one week, one direction of travel: the party accused of "blatant criminality" before it filed anything is now the party doing the filing. The preservation letters are not evidence yet. They are the instruction to keep the evidence around.
“They open a probe into who's bankrolling the ballroom, and the government's answer is a letter telling the senator to mind his own paperwork. That's the tell — when the threat starts with the investigator instead of the donor, you already know who's got something worth hiding. Same week they're calling Stephen Miller's disclosures "inconsistent," and nobody's sending him a letter.”
“Nobody's stopping any senator from investigating anything — we're just saying if you're going to subpoena private citizens' donor records, maybe preserve your own files too, for consistency's sake. That's not retaliation, that's — did I call it a warning? It's really more of a courtesy. A courtesy with "significant legal consequences" attached.”
Earlier in this story
- White House labels oversight a crime before any exists; Justice Department labels the one that arrives a threat. By Mitch · the morning edition, 12 November 2026
- White House letter names one Democrat a future criminal; another says 'come at me, bro.' By Mitch · the afternoon edition, 11 November 2026
- White House says the investigation that hasn't happened yet may be 'blatant criminality.' By Mitch · the afternoon edition, 11 November 2026
- Trump's new chief of staff is defended by branding his own deportation record misinformation. By Chip · the evening edition, 11 November 2026
- Trump says his deportation policy was too tough, then makes his longtime immigration adviser chief of staff. By Mort · the afternoon edition, 9 November 2026
- 'Zero chance' promise dies at three weeks; chief of staff's wife leaves the air three days later. By Mort · the morning edition, 9 November 2026
The receipts
Republicans' reconciliation package puts $70 billion into ICE's department NBC News, May 2026
Trump Names 'Hate-Filled Extremist' Stephen Miller as New Chief of StaffStephen Miller, the chief architect of the Trump administration's widely decried mass deportation policy, has received a promotion to be the next White House chief of staff. In a Friday social media post, President Donald Trump announced that Miller next week will take over for Susie Wiles, who served as his chief of staff for the past…
The last two years carry more measles cases than the rest of the century combined — the worst count since 1991 The Hill / CDC measles data, July 2026
Senator opens investigation into evidence RFK Jr ‘unlawfully lied’ to CongressExclusive: Ron Wyden, citing Guardian report, is launching inquiry into whether health secretary lied about Samoa trip during confirmation hearings A top Democratic senator has launched an investigation into evidence that Robert F Kennedy Jr “unlawfully lied” in his 2025 confirmation hearings to become the US health secretary, citing a…
A top federal prosecutor warned Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to preserve records related to his investigations into the donors funding President Trump’s White House ballroom project, accusing the senator of using congressional oversight to harass private citizens. Aaron Reitz, the U.S.
THE US presidency and the new Democrat majority Congress are gearing up for war through the courts. Attorney General Todd Blanche says Democrats talking of investigating Donald Trump and his family’s personal profiteering from office could face criminal investigation themselves. “They are not allowed to just go around threatening…
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) on Wednesday warned newly appointed White House chief of staff Stephen Miller that he "should be preserving documents," as the incoming chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee aims to launch sweeping probes into the Trump administration in the new Congress. Garcia, who already warned…
· Stephen Miller, Who Wants Immigrants Deported Over Paperwork, Has 'Glaring Inconsistencies' in His Disclosures from the morgue, 30 Oct 2026
· Letter from Jerome Coffey on legal violations from the morgue, 26 Aug 2026
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