Justice Department Warns Blumenthal Over Ballroom Donor Probe and Orders Records Preserved

WASHINGTON: A federal prosecutor has warned Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut that his investigation into the private donors funding President Donald Trump's White House ballroom could expose him to legal consequences, in a letter ordering the senator to preserve every record tied to the inquiry.

Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, wrote to Blumenthal on Wednesday and accused him of threatening citizens for associating themselves with the president. Reitz posted the letter on X, and acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter backed the move in public.

What the letter says

Reitz called it extraordinary for an elected official to intimidate citizens for philanthropic work, and he told Blumenthal he is obligated to preserve all relevant evidence tied to the donor inquiry. The letter cited the federal civil rights laws on conspiracy against rights and on deprivation of rights under color of law, according to reports of its text. A Justice Department spokesperson said the department routinely asks for records to be preserved when public officials take such extreme actions.

McCotter, the department's second-ranking official, wrote on X that the First Amendment prohibits Congress from infringing the speech and association rights of Americans, and added: "DOJ will defend against threats to those rights, period." No charge has been filed against Blumenthal. A preservation letter is a demand to keep records, not a prosecution.

The donor inquiry

Blumenthal is the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and he is set to chair the panel when the new Democratic-controlled Congress is seated in January. He has been asking companies and individuals who gave money to the ballroom project for their records since October. On Oct. 20, 2026, he wrote to Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff that many donors had apparently tried to keep their contributions secret and had deep interests before the Trump administration. He later asked nearly 60 known donors, among them Amazon, Apple, BlackRock, Google, Lockheed Martin, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Palantir, to hand over records by Jan. 4 or face subpoenas.

The ballroom is a planned 90,000-square-foot hall that replaces the demolished East Wing. Trump has put the cost at least at $400 million, to be paid with private donations, and the project is due to be finished by September 2028. In August, a divided Supreme Court allowed construction to continue.

Blumenthal answers back

Blumenthal replied on Wednesday night that he will not be intimidated. He said he would vigorously pursue investigations into what he called the administration's persistent misuse of taxpayer dollars, and he accused the administration of using the Justice Department to target Congress because it fears transparency.

He also sent Reitz a preservation request of his own, telling the prosecutor to keep all records tied to the decision to draft and post the letter, including any communications with the White House or senior Justice Department officials. He called his donor inquiry appropriate and part of his constitutional duties.

A wider fight over oversight

The letter to Blumenthal is the second warning of its kind this week. On Monday, White House counsel Will Scharf wrote to Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, that threats designed to deter officials from public service may cross the line into blatant criminality. Garcia said Democrats would not be threatened or intimidated.

Democrats won control of both chambers in last week's midterm elections and take power in January, when their committees gain subpoena power for the last two years of Trump's presidency. The two letters show the administration moving early to contest that oversight.