‘Lawyer up’: Democrats target Trump, Big Tech after midterm sweep

Democratic lawmakers said Big Tech executives should expect a wave of subpoenas, along with investigations into US President Donald Trump’s business circle when the new Congress takes office in January.

As Democrats secured control of Congress in a sweeping victory on Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers were already firing warning shots at the Trump family and tech executives close to the US president.

“They are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing,” said US Senator Ed Markey, who sits on the Senate Commerce Committee, referring to Big Tech executives.

US Representative Robert Garcia, the expected incoming House Oversight Committee chairman, said he plans to take on “the Trump Crime Family, corporate corruption, DHS and ICE abuses, and the cover-up of the Epstein files,” adding a two-word warning: “Lawyer up.”

The warnings follow a mid-term election campaign in which Democrats challenged Big Tech’s growing political influence and the rapid expansion of AI, raising concerns about data centers’ demands on electricity, safeguards for AI products and tech executives’ ties to Trump.

Punchbowl News reported on Wednesday that technology executives close to Trump, including Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, were expected to face scrutiny from House Oversight, Energy and Commerce and Senate Commerce.

The outlet also identified OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as potential witnesses facing questions about their companies’ AI products.

Trump’s crypto dealings also featured in mid-term Democratic campaign attacks, with candidates including Virginia Senator Mark Warner highlighting his memecoin earnings as part of a broader pattern of alleged corruption and self-enrichment.

“The amount of grift and corruption is unprecedented in American politics,” said Garcia during a press conference on Wednesday.