{"id":129807,"date":"2026-09-06T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/?p=129807"},"modified":"2026-09-06T16:40:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T23:40:23","slug":"trumps-in-house-lawyers-are-bracing-for-a-tidal-wave-of-democratic-investigations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/?p=129807","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s in-house lawyers are bracing for a tidal wave of Democratic investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even Republicans seem to think Democrats are poised to capture control of at least one chamber of Congress<\/a> during the midterm elections. Consequently, Will Scharf, who took over as White House counsel<\/a> this week, is reportedly leading other White House lawyers in battening down the hatches against an expected onslaught of congressional investigations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Scharf, like so many of the administration\u2019s top-ranking lawyers, formerly worked as one of President Donald Trump\u2019s personal lawyers<\/a>. That\u2019s a problem, because there is a line between serving the presidency and serving the man who holds the office. There are times when that line can be fuzzy, but Trump has encouraged his administration to act as if there isn\u2019t one at all.<\/p>\n

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Many of the individuals in Trump\u2019s orbit are reportedly looking to lawyer up.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

According to a recent New York Times profile of Scharf<\/a>, \u201cfriends and colleagues who know him well say that he does not see standing up to Mr. Trump as part of his job.\u201d That\u2019s arguably true for his former role as White House staff secretary,\u00a0but it doesn\u2019t bode well for him encouraging cooperation with investigations that target Trump or his family. A former Trump official told Politico<\/a> that \u201cthey expect Scharf to play a bit more to what the president wants\u2019\u201d than his immediate predecessor as counsel, David Warrington.<\/p>\n

Many of the individuals in Trump\u2019s orbit are reportedly looking to lawyer up and are hoping that Justice Department efforts to extend the scope of executive privilege<\/a> to communication with private advisers will shield them from congressional subpoenas. The Washington Post reported in May<\/a> that the counsel\u2019s office, then run by Warrington, was giving political appointees 30-minute PowerPoint presentations about congressional oversight. According to the Post, staffers were also \u201cencouraged \u2026 to be careful about what they put in writing and provided guidance for how to respond to congressional inquiries in a timely manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the first Trump administration, the White House legal team was initially focused on blunting the effects of the Russia probe and accordingly was slow to react to Democrats winning the House in 2018. That is, the attorneys were unprepared for the wave of requests for documents and testimony from staffers. Pat Cipollone, then Trump\u2019s White House counsel, took a hard-line approach against cooperating with the inquiry<\/a>, which culminated in Trump\u2019s first impeachment. House Democrats eventually charged Trump with abusing his power<\/a> in a scheme to influence the 2020 election and obstructing their investigation.<\/p>\n

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