Will Democrats investigate Elon Musk if they win the House, according to Catherine Rampell?

Catherine Rampell expects Democrats to dig into Musk's contracts and the DOGE team's actions if they retake the House, but doubts any indictment follows soon, because findings would be referred to a Justice Department controlled by Donald Trump. State prosecutors are a possible exception. Faiz Siddiqui adds that subpoena power would let investigators compel testimony and documents for the first time, which could expose far more about Musk's opaque companies.

• Senators Alex Padilla, Ruben Gallego and Richard Blumenthal and Representative James Walkinshaw have signalled interest in investigating Musk.
• Rampell expects other executives who courted Trump, including ballroom donors, to face inquiries too.

▸In their words

“At the federal level, it's Trump-controlled DOJ.” Catherine Rampell · at 13:30 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on On with Kara Swisher (2026-10-29). Read the whole episode summary →

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