Adam Schiff spent four years weaponizing the House Intelligence Committee against Donald Trump.
Now, eight months before the midterms, he's already mapping out round two.
Democrats don't have the House yet – but that hasn't stopped Schiff, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Richard Blumenthal from quietly plotting a wave of congressional investigations targeting every company, university, and law firm that dared to work with the Trump administration.
Democrats Plan to Investigate Companies and Universities That Worked With Trump
Axios broke the story this week: senior Senate Democrats are in early-stage discussions about launching sweeping probes the moment they flip a chamber. The targets are broad and the intent is unmistakable.
According to the report, Democrats are eyeing investigations into donations tied to a proposed White House renovation project, financial relationships involving universities, and corporate partnerships with administration initiatives. Schiff isn't waiting for the midterms to begin – he's already flooding agencies with FOIA requests covering everything from Jeffrey Epstein's bank records to allegations that Trump accepted a Qatari aircraft as a gift.
Sen. Chris Murphy put the threat in plain terms. He said Paramount should enjoy its "growing news monopoly" while it can, promising that Democrats would break up media companies he called "anti-democratic information conglomerates" once they win back power.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal was even more direct about how they'd wield investigative authority. She said you can't go after a hundred companies at once, but "you can do three and start with that."
Rep. Jamie Raskin called Trump's presidency itself a criminal enterprise, saying the "cardinal, original sin" was using the office as a profit-making venture and demanding Congress should have impeached him for "receiving millions and millions of dollars from foreign governments."
Here's what makes it even richer: the senator leading this charge is himself under a federal mortgage fraud investigation. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed a special attorney in August 2025 to probe allegations that Schiff falsified bank documents to misrepresent his Maryland home as his primary residence while representing California in Congress. A federal grand jury in Maryland was seated to review the case. Schiff – the man planning to use subpoena power to punish everyone who worked with Trump – is the subject of a criminal referral from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The man who wants to investigate everybody is being investigated.
Schiff Used Subpoena Power Against Trump in 2018 and Is Ready to Do It Again
Democrats have used congressional subpoena power as a political weapon every time they've taken back the House – and they start planning the next round before the last one ends.
In 2018, the moment Democrats won the House majority, Schiff and Jerry Nadler immediately launched a full-scale investigative blitz against the Trump administration. Schiff reopened the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. Nadler's Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Attorney General William Barr, held him in contempt, and spent two years filing lawsuits to pry classified materials out of the Justice Department. The end result was two failed impeachments and zero criminal convictions.
Schiff isn't new to this game. He ran the first impeachment process and turned it into a years-long television production that consumed the country and delivered nothing. Now he's a United States senator with broader subpoena authority, a personal score to settle, and his own federal probe hanging over him.
The political math is real. History shows the president's party loses an average of 28 House seats in midterms. Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority – they can afford to lose just two seats before control flips. Democrats need only three pickups to take the gavel. That's why they're already drafting target lists.
Democrats Don't Govern When They Win Power They Investigate
The left doesn't govern when it gets power. It investigates.
Every business that settled with the administration, every university that accepted federal funding under Trump's watch, every law firm that worked on a government contract – all of them are now reading these reports and making phone calls to lawyers. That's the point. The investigations are the punishment. The subpoenas are the message.
When the White House stonewalls a congressional probe, it has armies of lawyers, executive privilege claims, and institutional muscle to fight back. A mid-sized law firm or a university that cooperated with a Trump initiative has none of that. Democrats know exactly who can't fight back – and they're making a list.
Murphy isn't threatening to go after Paramount because he thinks they broke the law. He's threatening to go after Paramount because he wants them to think twice before carrying content he doesn't like.
Raskin isn't talking about prosecuting crimes – he's talking about relitigating an election he lost. Democrats spent the last four years scheming about how to undo Trump's presidency while he was busy rebuilding the economy and securing the border.
They're still scheming – and the man leading the charge can't even answer a federal grand jury's questions about his own mortgage.
Sources:
- Mike Allen and Andrew Solender, "Senate Democrats eye oversight blitz if they win Congress," Axios, March 12, 2026.
- Hannah Nightingale, "Report: Democrats Plot Investigations of Companies that Worked with Trump," Breitbart, March 13, 2026.
- Ryan J. Reilly et al., "DOJ investigating N.Y. AG's office and Sen. Adam Schiff," NBC News, August 8, 2025.
- Ryan J. Reilly et al., "The Adam Schiff criminal probe has stalled, sources say," NBC News, October 23, 2025.
- Ballotpedia, "United States Congress elections, 2026," Ballotpedia, March 2026.
