President Donald Trump's White House is heading into a wave of Democratic investigations with a key piece of its defense reportedly left undone.
Trump advisers told CNN in a report published Wednesday that as recently as September, the West Wing had made little real progress getting the president and his top aides ready for congressional scrutiny, even as a number of officials quietly retained personal attorneys.
The reporting lands one day after Democrats seized control of both chambers of Congress and, with it, the power to issue subpoenas. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, marked the victory with a blunt two-word statement. "Lawyer up," it read.
According to one adviser, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles routinely cut off talk of the oversight blitz expected to target the Trump administration's top ranks, worried it would distract from the campaign. "She would always say, 'We are going to win and we're going to put all our energy into winning,'" the adviser told CNN.
Other White House officials pushed back on that account, insisting Wiles had privately directed the White House Counsel's office to get ready for whatever Democrats might attempt while urging staff to "keep their eye on the prize."
"Quietly preparing for that scenario doesn't mean deployment of that scenario," one official argued.
That office has since brought on 15 more lawyers focused on shielding the administration from future probes, according to the report. One White House official delivered a combative message to the incoming majorities. "If crazed Democrats want to abuse their power and politicize the process of investigating and subpoenaing and try to destroy lives, they should be reminded that we still control the federal government and all of its powers," the official warned.
Not everyone is waiting on the White House. Some officials have hired attorneys or weighed buying legal insurance to cover what they expect to be hefty bills, and some junior staffers, mindful of the steep costs first-term aides faced during the January 6 investigation, have privately wondered whether to stay in their jobs.
Having already faced two impeachments in his first term, Trump is bracing for the worst, many in the West Wing believe. "He went through this already once before, of course he expects the worst," one source said.