Congress Can Compensate for Presidential Immunity by Documenting Corruption So a Future AG Can Recover Stolen Funds
Source: Dahlia Lithwick. "The Supreme Court gave Trump impunity. Congress can end that.." November 9, 2026. slate.com
The Gist
The Supreme Court's immunity ruling and Trump's promised pardons make criminal prosecution unlikely. But pardons can't stop the government from suing to take back money that was improperly gained. Congress should use its investigative power now to trace where the money went, so a later attorney general can go after it.
Conclusion
Despite the Supreme Court's grant of broad presidential immunity and the prospect of mass pardons, Congress (especially Democratic-led oversight committees) can still pursue meaningful accountability for Trump-era corruption by investigating and documenting where the money went, so that a future attorney general can recover it through civil means.
Premises
- Exit polls showed public outrage over corruption drove voting behavior, so voters want oversight aimed at concrete results (recovering money) rather than hearings and subpoenas for their own sake.
- Trump v. U.S. created an immunity found nowhere in the Constitution, and Trump has said he will pardon everyone on his way out, making criminal prosecution of the corruption unlikely.
- Pardons and criminal immunity do not shield ill-gotten gains from civil remedies such as unjust enrichment claims and civil asset forfeiture brought by a future attorney general.
- Congress cannot recover the money itself, but the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees can document where the money went, who took it, and on what pretenses, creating a record a future AG can follow.
- Conditions for compliance are better than in the earlier round of oversight: incoming committee chairs have planned countermeasures to past stonewalling, and Trump is a lame duck with a Republican coalition fracturing as members look toward 2028, making stonewalling harder.
Assumptions
- A future attorney general will be willing and able to bring civil unjust enrichment and asset-forfeiture claims against Trump, his family, and his allies.
- Civil remedies are legally available and not foreclosed by presidential immunity or pardons for the conduct at issue.
- The alleged enrichment constitutes illegal or improper corruption, and the sums involved are recoverable.
- Documentation compiled by Congress will be usable, durable, and not easily destroyed, suppressed, or discredited before a future AG can act.
- Democrats will control the relevant committees with subpoena power and the political will to use it effectively.
- Fractures within the Republican coalition will translate into reduced resistance to oversight.
- Accountability, not merely moving on, is necessary to prevent recurrence.