Trump's Justice Department faces a new era of scrutiny under a
Democratic-led Congress
[November 13, 2026]
By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has functioned for nearly two
years as an extension of the White House, unchecked by a
Republican-controlled Congress as it pursued investigations into
President Donald Trump's enemies, fired waves of career employees and
defended administration stances that judges across the country
repeatedly deemed legally dubious.
Now, sweeping Democratic gains in Congress have shifted the balance of
power in Washington, teeing up an onslaught of expected investigations
into those actions and others as well as scrutiny from the majority
party that the current Justice Department had until now managed to
skirt.
The department has, at least publicly, appeared unbowed by the altered
landscape.
Attorney General Todd Blanche says the department will cooperate with
Congress but has also insisted that “we will not back down” from the
Republican president's agenda. Meanwhile, a top aide told prosecutors on
a call to prepare to be on “wartime” footing and a U.S. attorney
publicly warned a top Democrat about planned congressional
investigations.
It sets the stage for a pugilistic dynamic as Democrats promise to join
already-skeptical courts in reining in the Trump administration while a
Justice Department depleted by the losses of thousands of career
employees and the postelection departures of senior leaders pledges to
push ahead with its agenda.
A call for a ‘wartime’ footing
Even though Democrats hold the gavel, they’re short on foolproof ways to
guarantee Republican cooperation. Lawsuits can take years, subpoenas can
be arduous to enforce and criminal contempt referrals for noncompliance
would be sent to the Trump administration Justice Department, where they
will almost certainly not be acted on.
“It’s a standoff and I don’t know what the answer to that is yet,” said
Stan Brand, a former general counsel for the House of Representatives.
“I don’t know if the Congress knows.”
Nonetheless, Democrats are eager to highlight what they view as abuses
of power, including a succession of investigations the department has
launched into the president’s perceived adversaries, many of which have
been rejected by grand juries, dismissed by judges or have otherwise
stalled without apparent progress.
In just the eventful weeks leading up to the election, the department
unsuccessfully sought an indictment against former White House aide
Cassidy Hutchinson, accelerated an investigation into Democratic Rep.
Ilhan Omar, employed an unusual maneuver to file a fresh criminal case
against former FBI Director James Comey and charged two ex-FBI officials
in a complaint that was swiftly dismissed by a judge.
Political pressure from the White House is unlikely to wane given the
promotion of Stephen Miller, a devoted Trump loyalist, to chief of
staff.
And Justice Department leadership has suggested it won’t let Democrats’
threats of investigations deter its pursuit of the White House’s
priorities, and may become even more aggressive in pressing the
president’s causes.
“We will not back down. This will not slow us down. This will not stop
us,” Blanche said in a Fox News interview Monday. “President Trump has
two years remaining in this administration and you better believe that
we’re going to use it effectively.”
In a call with U.S. attorneys across the country this week, a top
Blanche aide, Aakash Singh, told prosecutors to prepare to be on
“wartime” footing, and suggested more U.S. attorneys may be pushed out
after a spate of postelection departures, according to people familiar
with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss
internal department discussions.
The Justice Department said the “‘wartime’ reference had everything to
do with public safety,” noting that some “newly elected state and local
leaders are no longer interested in partnering with federal law
enforcement.”
Any additional U.S. attorney departures would be on top of a string of
significant departures in the days after the election, when the
Senate-confirmed leaders of the department’s National Security, Civil
and Civil Rights divisions all announced their resignations. The
divisions will have temporary leaders but are unlikely to get
Senate-confirmed ones in light of the Democratic majority.
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A banner with a portrait of President Donald Trump is seen hung
outside the Department of Justice, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP
Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
“What that means for DOJ, potentially, is just a lot of inaction, with
tough decisions not being made because typically those tough decisions
are made by confirmed people at the top of the components,” said Greg
Brower, a former U.S. attorney in Nevada during President George W.
Bush’s administration who was later the FBI’s chief congressional
affairs official.
The department said in a statement that it has “full confidence in the
leaders stepping in to guide our Divisions, and its mission is
unchanged: enforce the law, combat crime, and protect the American
people.”
Early rhetorical clashes between lawmakers and the department
To be sure, tensions between the Justice Department and Congress of an
opposing party are a staple of oversight dating back decades and across
administrations.
The Republican-led House voted in 2012 to hold then-Attorney General
Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Democrats did the same in 2019 when
William Barr led the Justice Department. There were even interparty
clashes during the first Trump administration.
But the situation now is unlike anything the current department has
experienced.
As the minority party in both the House and Senate, Democrats decried
during hearings and in letters what they saw as the department's erosion
of independence but had little power to demand accountability.
On the rare occasion when the department did appear fazed by
congressional oversight, it was generally because of Republican
resistance, including over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files or
an ultimately abandoned fund to compensate Trump allies.
The Democrats' planned inquiries have already invited opposition from
Republicans and the White House, with Trump accusing Democrats of
“extortion” and ordering the attorney general to conduct an
investigation.
The White House has issued a warning on expected investigations,
asserting in a letter from counsel Will Scharf that such inquiries — a
routine function of Congress — may amount to “blatant criminality.”
Members of Congress enjoy broad legal protections for acts they take as
lawmakers under a constitutional principle known as “speech and debate.”
“My first-year law students would fail if they wrote a letter like
that,” Brand said.
Additionally, the top federal prosecutor in Houston sent a warning
letter to Sen. Richard Blumenthal over the Connecticut Democrat's
inquiry into funding for Trump’s White House ballroom. In the letter,
U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz ordered Blumenthal to preserve all records
relevant to his inquiry, and accused the senator of intimidating
“citizens for engaging in philanthropic practices that will benefit our
nation for generations.”
Blumenthal responded that he would not be intimidated.
Blanche told reporters Thursday that there were no open investigations
into Democrats' rhetoric and acknowledged that it’s not a crime to warn
of looming investigations. But he again expressed concern over what he
described as threats against the administration.
Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, said in an interview
with The Associated Press that the message from Washington was for
prosecutors to continue their aggressive focus on the administration's
priorities of tackling fraud, violent crime, drug trafficking and
cartels.
“I’ve been through so many administrations as a prosecutor,” said Foley,
who co-chairs a committee that advises the attorney general on policies
and priorities. “This is a lot of noise that’s coming out of the
elections and posturing going on. But things are going to settle down
and we’ve operated proficiently through divided governments before and
we’ll continue to do so.”
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