U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, stated during a CNN appearance Sunday that tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and several other Trump allies are on the committee’s target list for investigations once the new Congress is sworn in this January. Garcia failed to name any crimes the committee would be investigating, however.
During Sunday’s installment of CNN’s State of the Union, host Dana Bash asked Garcia about his earlier warning that Miller should “lawyer up.” Bash noted that Garcia had said Miller would be a target of investigations and asked why the congressman planned to investigate him and whether he believed Miller committed a crime.
Garcia responded by describing Miller as “the architect of this horrific unjust policy happening across the country in the way that we are treating folks.” He referenced Miller calling Alex Pretti — a Minnesota man who was shot and killed while scuffling with federal immigration agents — “an assassin” and general Trump Administration immigration/deportation policies.
Garcia said these matters “has to be investigated” and that Miller “has been an architect of that,” adding that Miller is “at the center of the major policy decisions that are happening in the administration” and that the issues “deserve oversight and investigation.”
Bash followed up by asking whether Garcia thought anything Miller did was criminal. “That is, look, what’s important is we believe that he’s been at the center of actions that are unconstitutional, unjust, and possibly illegal, so we’re of course going to investigate that,” the congressman replied.
He did not name a particular statute, charge, or specific illegal act.
🚨 BREAKING: In a MAJOR mask-off moment, incoming House Oversight Chair Robert Garcia (D) is UNABLE to say which crimes are being committed by Trump allies and Stephen Miller — he’s just investigating for a FISHING expedition ‼️
GARCIA: All those committing crimes need to be… pic.twitter.com/VoduroGjct
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 8, 2026
Attorney General Todd Blanche responded to Garcia’s “lawyer up” warning directed at Miller on Sunday. “You have Garcia saying minutes after Stephen Miller was promoted to be the chief of staff to the president of the United States of America, telling him to lawyer up. Well, I’ll tell you what. Stephen Miller has a lawyer. It’s me,” Blanche said during an appearance on Fox News.
In addition to Garcia’s threats, incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has vowed to target law firms and business that “collaborate” with the Trump Administration.
Raskin specified that the focus would include law firms that entered deals following executive orders issued early in President Donald Trump’s second term. Those orders had targeted firms over their representation of certain clients and personnel decisions. In response, multiple firms agreed to provide free legal services aligned with administration priorities, modify diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, and make other concessions.
“The law firms that you mentioned, we know that there were many heroic law firms that have stood up against all of the lawbreaking and then the attempt to shake them down for the time of their partners and of their young associates, and yet there are major law firms in America, including Paul Weiss, that have capitulated to these coercive tactics by Donald Trump and have basically surrendered and made all kinds of outrageous concessions,” Raskin said.
He added that his office and colleagues had already “sent a number of letters to those law firms, and they have been not forthcoming up until now. But when we have the power of subpoena, and we have the power to conduct oversight, we believe a lot of these law firms are going to be coming forward and telling the truth. Otherwise, they are law firms that have no respect for the rule of law, and we’re going to make sure that they comply with the federal subpoena; it is the exact same legal force as a judicial subpoena does. Subpoena means ‘under the power’ or ‘under the penalty of law.’”
