The Fight Over Dems’ Subpoena List
An 181-page document listing executives and corporations Democrats could investigate is circulating among senior party members on Capitol Hill. According to the memo,
Democrats should use their newfound power in Congress to probe not just the Trump administration, but also Big Tech leaders, nursing home operators, artificial intelligence developers, fossil fuel firms, and other corporate actors accused of bad-faith profiteering.
The document, obtained by The Washington Sun and written by the progressive Groundwork Collaborative think tank, reportedly calls for the “resignations of major CEOs, hauling people in, [and] material restitution.” Already, it seems that the ball is rolling: Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Cesar (D-Texas) said yesterday that subpoenaing AI CEOs should be Democrats’ first priority in the new year.
Not everyone agrees. Some corporate Democrats are instead urging the party to narrow their scope: “There will be real legitimate instances to crack down on corporate abuses, but it needs to be focused,” Ben Ritz, vice president of the “centrist” Progressive Policy Institute, told the Sun.
“It can’t be a message of, ‘Corporate America is the source of all your problems,’ because most people rely on these firms for paychecks and products that make their lives better,” he added.
The Groundwork Collaborative sees things differently. “Trump’s Qatari jet, his ballroom, the Reflecting Pool renovations — those take a lot of Beltway energy that is not interesting or motivating to anybody but hard-core Democrats who already hate Trump,” Alex Jacquez, the Groundwork Collaborative’s senior vice president, told the Sun. “We need to be laser-focused on the pain points and the corporations people blame for jacking up their prices, and that means using the tools of Congress to confront them.”
Other sample hearings proposed in Groundwork’s memo include requiring landlord executives to testify on rental junk fees, sports gambling app creators to speak on addiction, and grocery store chain leaders to be grilled on surveillance pricing.
Still, Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), Democrats’ leader on the House Judiciary Committee, told The Washington Sun that his office is not seeking to go after specific businesses.
“We’re not targeting particular corporations,” Raskin told the Sun. “We’re targeting systems and networks of corruption, and to the extent corporations are involved, they are subject to the oversight project of Congress and our subpoena authority like everyone else.”
Lindsey Owens, president of the Groundwork Collaborative, has since pushed back: “For those who see [our] strategy as [at] odds with a focus on corruption, you don’t get it,” she said. “Corporate influence in Washington is what voters are referring to when they say Washington is corrupt.”
“Haul in corporate CEOs. Put them under oath. Make them answer for the rip-offs,” Owens wrote on X after appearing on comedian Theo Von’s podcast. “Time for some accountability.”
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