Investigation season is here. The House Oversight and Reform Committee announced Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, will testify publicly on Feb. 7, which will be followed the next day in the House Judiciary Committee by public testimony from acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. …
At their core, congressional investigations are a form of political theater, which means their success won’t just depend on what Democrats find but how they present it. There is evidence that congressional investigations can erode presidential support, especially when the government is divided like it is now, but if hearings are unfocused, too technical or appear petty, they can either be ignored by the media or dismissed by the president and his supporters as partisan “harassment.” Congressional investigations can be an extremely powerful tool in a divided government — but only if the investigations make a clear, coherent case for executive branch wrongdoing. CONT.
Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, FiveThirtyEight