U.S. President Donald Trump has been put in the hot seat as the House Judiciary Committee announced on Monday that it launched an inquiry into the American leader's potential abuse of power, corruption, and obstruction of justice.
Multiple outlets reported that the Committee is requesting documents from 81 entities or people as part of the inquiry. According to Vox, it is the first major move that new chair Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) made since assuming office as the head of the Committee.
The outlet further noted that the majority of the document requests have been handed out to people or entities who are in a way involved in coverage of the Russia scandal. A separate set of requests are focused on potential corruption-related issues that stem from the U.S. president's business practices and reported extramarital affairs.
According to Politico's Darren Samuelson and Andrew Desiderio, a senior Committee lawyer said: "the document request was put together with sign-off from prosecutors in Mueller's office and the Southern District of New York."
Some of the entities and people who received document requests are Michael Cohen, the Trump Organization, the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, Trump Foundation, Kushner Companies, and Trump's two sons. A number of people involved in the U.S. chief's 2016 presidential campaign have also received document requests including campaign managers Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, and Corey Lewandowski.
As for the Russia investigation, two people from Trump's legal team are getting a lot of attention from the Committee. Jay Sekulow, who is still a member of the team and knew about Cohen's reported false statements to Congress, is said to be in the center of a probe about the business mogul's potential obstruction of justice.
Mark Corallo, who was reportedly alarmed about potential obstruction of justice and spent a short period serving as the legal team's spokesperson, has also gained the interest of Democrats who initiated the probe.
The Guardian noted that recipients have only been given two weeks to provide a response to the Committee. If they fail to respond within the deadline, they could be faced with legally binding subpoenas.
Nadler stressed that "impeachment is a long way down the road" but he said the Committee will move with the probe quickly to provide Americans with facts and transparency. He added that Trump has been evading "accountability" surrounding ethical, legal, and constitutional standards.
Furthermore, Nadler said in an interview on ABC over the weekend that before impeaching a leader, the Committee has to prove to the public that the impeachment should happen.
In response to questions about the inquiry, Trump told reporters on Monday that he will cooperate with the Committee's requests but called the move a "hoax."
