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House Democrats are ordering federal agencies and major companies to preserve records tied to President Trump’s construction projects in Washington, after whistleblowers warned the Interior Department is destroying documents before Democrats take control of Congress in January.
Getting into it: Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee and its expected chairman next year, sent letters this week telling 36 federal agencies and private companies to hold onto their records, recover anything that’s been deleted and stop any destruction practices.
Several whistleblowers came forward to the committee over the past few weeks, saying Interior, which controls much of the federal land Trump’s projects sit on, was dumping records before investigators could get to them, according to CNN. The recipients include Interior, the National Park Service, the Agriculture and Commerce Departments, and companies that have donated to Trump’s projects or been subject to committee inquiries, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Palantir, ExxonMobil, John Deere and UFC.
A Politico report in August found Interior officials regularly ran documents through the shredder and switched to auto-deleting Signal chats to get around the federal law that requires those communications be saved. Committee aides are planning a major public hearing early next year, with Trump’s 250-foot triumphal arch and his overhaul of the East Potomac golf course among its top targets, and the committee is prepared to issue subpoenas, with Huffman saying it can go to court to stop some of the projects.
The Interior Department called the whistleblower claims “100% false,” saying it follows all federal records rules, while the White House said it expects every agency to follow record retention laws. Meanwhile, the administration is racing to move its projects forward before the new Congress is seated, with the arch, fencing around Lafayette Square, the golf course and a plan for the Tidal Basin that includes Trump’s Garden of American Heroes all set to advance over the next 60 days.
This all comes as Democrats prepare to use their new majorities to launch investigations across the Trump administration, while Trump has ordered the Justice Department to look into Democrats over what he called threats against his officials and donors.
