Trump DOJ threatens senator with ‘significant consequences’ over White House ballroom probe

A top federal prosecutor appointed by Donald Trump is threatening “significant legal consequences” over a senator’s investigation into the president’s White House ballroom — and whether donors are getting anything from the government in return.Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling the threat against him “just the latest in a series of unlawful actions” from the Trump administration in its attempts to “intimidate” members of Congress, with investigations into the president and his allies expected to accelerate after midterm elections victories.“Your implied threat of an investigation is baseless,” Blumenthal fired back in his letter to U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz. “I will not be intimidated.”Blumenthal, who is the incoming chair of a senate subcommittee on investigations, plans to “vigorously pursue investigations into this administration’s misuse of taxpayer dollars and any corporate entity that has enabled its boundless corruption,” he said.“The public deserves to know the terms under which dozens of American companies were persuaded to donate millions of dollars to the president’s vanity projects, and whether lawsuits were dismissed, contracts were awarded, or regulations went unenforced in exchange for that money,” Blumenthal added.A top federal prosecutor appointed by Trump has suggested that a Democratic senator could face ‘significant legal consequences’ if he continues to investigate donors to the president’s ballroom project (Reuters)In his letter to the senator this week, which he posted to X, Reitz instructed Blumenthal to retain emails and other records related to the investigation — and accused the senator of trying to intimidate Americans over their “constitutionally protected associations” with the president.The brief letter cites two federal criminal statutes, including a law related to conspiracies to violate constitutional rights. The letter does not explicitly state that Blumenthal is under criminal investigation but orders the senator to confirm by November 18 whether he had complied with the documents request — with a warning that destroying evidence could result in criminal consequences.“Congress is not a weapon to be wielded against the American people,” Reitz wrote on X. “I’m taking the first step to stop this abuse of power.”Blumenthal, in his letter, ordered Reitz to preserve his own records and correspondents — including all of his communication with the White House and Department of Justice officials related to the letter he sent him.Documents first obtained by The Washington Post detail $333 million in private gifts, including previously undisclosed contributions from large corporations, Republican mega-donors and entities regulated by or seeking contracts from federal agencies.The White House publicly named 37 donors last October without disclosing specific sums.Nvidia and Apple each pledged $25 million, records show, as did the Adelson family and Charles Ergen, chairman of Dish Network. Other major corporate backers committing $5 million or more include Amazon, Comcast, Microsoft, T-Mobile and Caterpillar.Blumenthal wants to know whether US companies and wealthy donors received any government favors in return for their financial support for the White House ballroom, which is projected to cost up to $600 million (Getty)Trump, in his first public appearance after a historic streak of Republican losses in midterm elections last week, toured the bare floor of his under-construction White House ballroom, what he called his “safest” space in Washington, D.C.After he demolished the East Wing of the White House, the former real estate mogul envisioned an ornate White House ballroom stuffed with gold finishes and marble floors to replace it. But court filings over the last several months have detailed what officials called “top secret” designs that revealed the primary purpose of the 90,000-square-foot, heavily fortified and militarized ballroom project.The ballroom is “a knitted, unified, cohesive part of the East Wing Project, which is vital for National Security, and is being constructed to ensure that the President can perform his constitutional duties in a safe and heavily secured facility,” government lawyers wrote in court documents this summer.When completed, it will include “heavy steel, drone-proof roof, missile-resistant and drone-proof columns, bullet, ballistic, and blast-proof glass, Military-grade venting for air conditioning and heating” as well as “bomb shelters, a state-of-the-art hospital and medical facilities, Top Secret military installations, structures, and equipment, protective partitioning, and other features,” according to the Department of Justice.Costs for the project have exploded from an initial $200 million estimate to as much as $600 million, half of which is likely to be paid with public funds.Combined with his other renovation projects, the president has spent or plans to spend more than $1.65 billion in taxpayer dollars throughout the capital.Trump plans to turn the gold-filled ballroom into a heavily fortified military complex, among several DC-area projects that the president is turning into ‘national security’ installations (Getty)The letters follow growing pressure from the White House and Justice Department against incoming members of Congress who are drafting plans to investigate the administration or publicly threatening potential prosecutions and subpoenas for testimony.In a letter on Monday, less than one week after Election Day, White House counsel Will Scharf told the top Democrat on the influential House Oversight Committee that Democrats’ public promises to investigate the Trump administration amount to “abusive and capricious threats” and their upcoming probes “may cross the line into blatant criminality.”In his letter to Rep. Robert Garcia, Scharf cited statements from Democratic lawmakers who have pledged to issue subpoenas, hold congressional hearings and potentially prosecute administration officials and Trump allies — actions that Scharf claims are an illegitimate use of their congressional authority and only “designed to deter them from public service” or to “instill fear.”Garcia is undeterred; he said in a statement in response to the letter that “Congress’ authority comes from Article I of the Constitution, not from the permission of the White House.”“Congress has wide latitude to conduct investigations and oversight, an authority inherent in the power to legislate,” he added.