Democrats pull trigger on document demands from Trump

House Democrats fired off 81 document requests to people in President Trump’s orbit Monday, launching the beginnings of an effort they say is intended to spot crimes — and could result in impeachment.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, who would oversee impeachment hearings, announced the requests, which range from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the president’s business empire to his family, his current and former advisers and the National Rifle Association.

“Over the last several years, President Trump has evaded accountability for his near-daily attacks on our basic legal, ethical, and constitutional rules and norms,” Mr. Nadler said.

Piggybacking on that demand, the House Oversight, Foreign Affairs and intelligence committees joined together to demand access to the president’s translators for his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Those committees also demanded access to anyone else who was in the meetings, was told about the meetings, or read about the meetings, either from U.S. or foreign sources.

The combined requests — the political equivalent of a body cavity search — are likely to spark a major fight over access to presidential advisers.

Mr. Nadler said his requests are intended to build a public record on Mr. Trump in case special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative report is bottled up.

He said Mr. Mueller is aware of the requests.

Rep. Doug Collins, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said Mr. Nadler was jumping the gun.

“We don’t even know what the Mueller report says, but Democrats are already hedging their bets,” he said. “After recklessly prejudging the president for obstruction, Chairman Nadler is pursuing evidence to back up his conclusion because, as he admits, ’we don’t have the facts yet.’”

Mr. Trump mocked the demands but suggested he will abide by them.

“I cooperate all the time with everybody,” he said. He called the document demands “a political hoax,” using the same language he deploys to mock the special counsel’s investigation.

The White House issued a terse message acknowledging the requests.

“The House Judiciary Committee’s letter has been received by the White House. The counsel’s office and relevant White House officials will review it and respond at the appropriate time,” said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Mr. Trump said over the weekend that he was the victim of “presidential harassment.”

“I am an innocent man,” he said on Twitter Sunday morning.

Hours later he returned to the topic again, tweeting: “Presidential Harassment by ’crazed’ Democrats at the highest level in the history of our Country. Likewise, the most vicious and corrupt Mainstream Media that any president has ever had to endure.”

Democratic House leaders have said they are not yet certain if they will pursue impeachment, but the new document requests and an increasingly strident tone suggest the needle is swinging in that direction.

Mr. Nadler’s targets give some indication of the directions he’s going.

Donald Trump Jr. and lawyers for the Trump Organization are among those names, suggesting more inquiries into the 2016 campaign and to the president’s business operations even before he was a candidate.

The list of requests, as released by Mr. Nadler, covered:

1. Alan Garten (letter, document requests) 
2. Alexander Nix (letter, document requests) 
3. Allen Weisselberg (letter, document requests) 
4. American Media Inc (letter, document requests)
5. Anatoli Samochornov (letter, document requests)
6. Andrew Intrater (letter, document requests)
7. Annie Donaldson (letter, document requests)
8. Brad Parscale (letter, document requests)
9. Brittany Kaiser (letter, document requests)
10. Cambridge Analytica (letter, document requests) 
11. Carter Page (letter, document requests)
12. Christopher Bancroft Burnham (letter, document requests)
13. Columbus Nova (letter, document requests)
14. Concord Management and Consulting (letter, document requests)
15. Corey Lewandowski (letter, document requests)
16. David Pecker (letter, document requests)
17. Department of Justice (letter, document requests)
18. Don McGahn (letter, document requests) 
19. Donald J Trump Revocable Trust (letter, document requests) 
20. Donald Trump Jr. (letter, document requests) 
21. Dylan Howard (letter, document requests)
22. Eric Trump (letter, document requests)
23. Erik Prince (letter, document requests)
24. Federal Bureau of Investigation (letter, document requests)
25. Felix Sater (letter, document requests)
26. Flynn Intel Group (letter, document requests)
27. Frontier Services Group (letter, document requests)
28. General Services Administration (letter, document requests)
29. George Nader (letter, document requests)
30. George Papadopoulos (letter, document requests)
31. Hope Hicks (letter, document requests)
32. Irakly Kaveladze (letter, document requests)
33. J.D. Gordon (letter, document requests)
34. Jared Kushner (letter, document requests)
35. Jason Maloni (letter, document requests)
36. Jay Sekulow (letter, document requests)
37. Jeff Sessions (letter, document requests)
38. Jerome Corsi (letter, document requests)
39. John Szobocsan (letter, document requests)
40. Julian Assange (letter, document requests)
41. Julian David Wheatland (letter, document requests)
42. Keith Davidson (letter, document requests)
43. KT McFarland (letter, document requests)
44. Kushner Companies (letter, document requests)
45. Mark Corallo (letter, document requests)
46. Matt Tait (letter, document requests)
47. Matthew Calamari (letter, document requests)
48. Michael Caputo (letter, document requests)
49. Michael Cohen (letter, document requests)
50. Michael Flynn (letter, document requests)
51. Michael Flynn Jr (letter, document requests)
52. National Rifle Association (letter, document requests)
53. Paul Erickson (letter, document requests)
54. Paul Manafort (letter, document requests)
55. Peter Smith (Estate) (letter, document requests)
56. Randy Credico (letter, document requests)
57. Reince Priebus (letter, document requests)
58. Rhona Graff (letter, document requests)
59. Rick Gates (letter, document requests)
60. Rinat Akhmetshin (letter, document requests)
61. Rob Goldstone (letter, document requests)
62. Roger Stone (letter, document requests)
63. Ronald Lieberman (letter, document requests)
64. Sam Nunberg (letter, document requests)
65. SCL Group Limited (letter, document requests)
66. Sean Spicer (letter, document requests)
67. Sheri Dillon (letter, document requests)
68. Stefan Passantino (letter, document requests)
69. Steve Bannon (letter, document requests)
70. Ted Malloch (letter, document requests)
71. The White House (letter, document requests)
72. Tom Barrack (letter, document requests)
73. Tom Bossert (letter, document requests)
74. Tony Fabrizio (letter, document requests)
75. Trump Campaign (letter, document requests)
76. Trump Foundation (letter, document requests)
77. Trump Organization (letter, document requests)
78. Trump Transition (letter, document requests)
79. Viktor Vekselberg (letter, document requests)
80. WikiLeaks (letter, document requests)
81. 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee (letter, document requests)