Nov. 12 (UPI) — A U.S. attorney with the Justice Department demanded that Sen. Richard Blumenthal preserve all documents concerning his investigation into potential conflicts of interest stemming from the Trump administration’s drive for private donations to construct the White House ballroom, accusing the Connecticut Democrat of threatening American citizens for associating with President Donald Trump.
“In recent weeks, you have threatened citizens for associating themselves with the president and other public officials. Yet, the ‘freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect’ of our Constitution and way of life,” U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz of the Southern District of Texas said in a Wednesday letter addressed to Blumenthal.
“It is also extraordinary for an elected official to intimidate citizens for engaging in philanthropic practices that will benefit our nation for generations. The American people are entitled to freely associate without elected officials terrorizing them with aggressive, harassing government action.”
Trump’s White House ballroom has faced criticism since it was announced in July 2025 and legal challenges since construction began later that year.
The president initially said it would cost $200 million and be paid for by private donors, but a contractor’s internal estimate obtained by The Washington Post up the project’s price tag at $600 million, with more than half expected to come from taxpayers.
Blumenthal, ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has been looking into waste, fraud and abuse connected to Trump administration construction projects in D.C., including the ballroom initiative.
On Oct. 21, Blumenthal announced letters had been sent to more than a dozen previously undisclosed White House ballroom donors made public in reporting by The Post. He asked them to name those who solicited the donations, say whether specific donation amounts were suggested and whether they were offered anonymity, as well as provide copies of any formal agreements and a list of all contacts donors or their representatives had with the White House or federal agencies.
“The American people are entitled to all the relevant facts about who is funding the most substantial construction project at the White House in recent history,” Blumenthal wrote in one of the letters.
In his Wednesday letter to Blumenthal, Reitz gave the senator until 6 p.m. EST Nov. 18 to confirm that he has taken steps to preserve the materials.
“Failure to do so may result in sanctions, adverse-inference instructions or other penalties, and may carry significant legal consequences,” the U.S. attorney said.
Blumenthal responded to Reitz in a letter: “I will not be intimidated.”
“I will work on behalf of the American people to vigorously pursue investigations into this administration’s persistent misuse of taxpayer dollars and any corporate entity that has enabled their boundless corruption,” he said in a statement.
“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.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly used the powers of the executive branch, including the Justice Department, to impose punitive measures and launch investigations and criminal proceedings against the president’s perceived opponents.
The letter to Blumenthal follows a letter from White House counsel Will Scharf to Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, warning that Democratic investigations in to Trump, his family and other Republican allies could constitute criminal conduct.
Garcia responded Wednesday by accusing the White House of threatening to infringe upon the committee’s constitutionally protected right to conduct congressional oversight.
“It appears Donald Trump has something to hide,” Garcia said in a statement.
The legal pressure is being applied to the Democrats after they won control of both the House and the Senate in last week’s midterm elections, which had increasingly occupied Trump’s attention in the preceding months, having warned GOP lawmakers that if they lost control of Congress, impeachment and investigations would follow.
“The American people voted overwhelmingly for us to pass laws to root out corruption and abuse,” Garcia continued.
“The Trump administration continues to weaponize the government with threats of unconstitutional attacks on Congress. We are a co-equal branch of government and will not be deterred by baseless threats from a weaponized DOJ or from the president’s lawyers.”
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