Trump, Democrats cross swords over powers as 2020 election looms

Congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump are locked in a constitutional showdown over their powers to investigate him, exchanging threats that present risks for both sides as they head into the 2020 election. In a clash over the balance of power between the government’s legislative and executive branches, the Trump administration is stonewalling congressional investigators and asserting that it is within its rights to do so. On Capitol Hill, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, one of several senior Democrats leading probes of Trump, his presidency and his businesses, issued a dire warning: “The challenge we face is that the president of the United States wants desperately to prevent Congress, a co-equal branch of government, from providing any check whatsoever on even his most reckless decisions,” Nadler said in a hearing on Thursday.