Out of power in Congress, Democrats spotlight Trump's Justice Department with 'shadow hearing'
WASHINGTON — A pair of prominent Democratic members of Congress will host a "shadow" hearing Monday seeking to spotlight what they describe as President Donald Trump's attacks on the rule of law.
WASHINGTON — A pair of prominent Democratic members of Congress will host a "shadow" hearing Monday seeking to spotlight what they describe as President Donald Trump's attacks on the rule of law.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., will lead the event Monday afternoon, with Schiff telling NBC News he hopes the hearing will help "shed a light" on the "rampant" abuses in the first few months of the Trump administration.
With Democrats in the minority in both the House and the Senate, they are unable to convene official congressional hearings themselves or call administration officials to testify. Instead, they are spotlighting people who were fired or resigned from the Justice Department in the early days of Trump's second term.
"If the Republicans aren't going to oversee it and do the necessary oversight, then we're going to need to do it ourselves," Schiff said in an interview. "And there's probably no department more in need of oversight than the Justice Department."
Among the participants will be former Justice Department prosecutor Ryan Crosswell, who resigned from the department's Public Integrity Section following an order to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. The former acting U.S. attorney prosecuting the case criticized it as a possible quid pro quo, which Adams' attorneys and department leaders denied. Another will be Rachel Cohen, the former associate at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom who resigned just before the firm reached a deal to provide $100 million in legal services to causes Trump supports as part of an agreement for Trump to drop an executive order targeting it.
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