WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday launched a broad inquiry into the potential influence that Russia and other foreign powers may be exercising over President Trump, acting just hours after a defiant Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that the House would not be cowed by the president’s “all-out threat’’ to drop its investigations of his administration.
Other committees were zeroing in on similarly sensitive oversight targets. On Thursday, Democrats will begin their quest to secure the president’s long-suppressed tax returns. Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, warned the acting attorney general, Matthew G. Whitaker, on Wednesday that he could not avoid Democratic questioning. And a House Appropriations subcommittee chairwoman began an inquiry into administration rule-bending during the 35-day government shutdown.
“It’s our congressional responsibility, and if we didn’t do it, we would be delinquent in that,’’ Pelosi said of the House’s oversight role, just hours after Trump used his State of the Union address to warn that “ridiculous partisan investigations’’ threatened the nation’s economic health and the prospects of bipartisan legislating.
That, Pelosi said, “was a threat; it was an all-out threat.’’
Despite Trump’s warning, the gears of congressional oversight — which were mostly still under Republican control during Trump’s first two years in office — began to turn in the portrait-lined hearing rooms of the House office buildings.
The Intelligence Committee held its first formal meeting of the year and promptly laid out a five-point investigation that was far broader in scope than previously expected.
Democrats will reopen the inquiry into Russia’s election interference efforts and possible collusion with the Trump campaign that the Republican majority closed last year. But they will add “interconnected lines of inquiry,’’ including whether Russia or other foreign actors hold financial or other leverage over Trump and his associates that at any point could have influenced US policy. Democrats also added a broadly construed obstruction of justice component to their work for the first time.
Trump dismissed the inquiry, saying he had “never heard of’’ the Intelligence Committee chairman, Adam B. Schiff of California, even though he has previously taunted Schiff with a vulgarism.
“He’s just a political hack. He’s trying to build a name for himself,’’ the president said, adding, “It’s called presidential harassment. And it’s unfortunate. And it really does hurt our country.’’
Schiff shot back, “I can understand why the idea of meaningful oversight terrifies the president. Look, several associates of his have gone to jail. Others are awaiting trial. But we’re going to do our oversight. We are not going to be intimidated by his vulgar threats.’’
Intelligence Committee Republicans, who have already begun to accuse the Democrats of politically motivated overreach, did not sign on to the investigation. In a separate statement, they called on Democrats to subpoena unnamed witnesses they recommended.
In its meeting, the committee also voted to share transcripts of witness interviews that it conducted related to Russian election interference with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller has already used two such transcripts to charge associates of the president with lying to Congress, and Democrats believe others could have intentionally misled the committee.
Other committees were making moves, too.
The Judiciary Committee had called a meeting Thursday to vote on a subpoena to compel testimony from Trump’s acting attorney general, if needed. Whitaker, a loyalist of the president’s who is overseeing Mueller’s work, is scheduled to testify voluntarily Friday, but Democrats have concerns that he may try to back out or dodge questions about the firing of his predecessor, the president’s attacks on the Justice Department, and other matters related to the Mueller inquiry.
“For the first two years of the Trump administration, Congress allowed government witnesses to dodge uncomfortable questions,’’ Nadler said in a statement. “That era is over.’’
Perhaps most personally for the president, a Ways and Means oversight subcommittee will hold its first hearing Thursday to start building a public rationale to pursue Trump’s tax returns.
An obscure provision in the federal tax code gives the chairman of the committee unilateral powers to request from the Treasury Department tax information on any filer, including the president.
Advisers around the president have been preparing for the congressional onslaught for months, and they know there is little hope of dissuading Democrats, who won control of the House by promising to be a check on Trump. That, and the long history of congressional oversight of the executive branch, made Trump’s comments Tuesday night all the more surprising to lawmakers.
“An economic miracle is taking place in the United States — and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations,’’ the president said amid a broader call for bipartisan cooperation between the two branches. “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn’t work that way!’’
Pelosi said that was a false choice, telling reporters Wednesday that Democrats could engage with Trump on issues like immigration and reducing prescription drug pricing while also holding his administration accountable.