House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin fired off a letter this week demanding Donald Trump Jr. and his venture capital firm hand over records on a run of investments the Maryland Democrat says is too good to be clean.

The letter, dated August 26, was sent to 1789 Capital president Omeed Malik and chief investment officer Christopher Buskirk, with a September 9 deadline to produce investment lists, communications with federal officials, and hiring records. Raskin wants everything preserved.

From $150 million to $3 billion

Trump Jr. joined 1789 Capital as a partner just four days after his father's 2024 election win. Since then, according to Bloomberg's reporting on the probe, the once-struggling firm has ballooned from roughly $150 million in assets under management to an estimated $3 billion.

Raskin's letter zeroes in on specific bets. The firm's 2025 stake in rare-earths magnet maker Vulcan Elements was followed within months by a $620 million Pentagon loan and a $50 million CHIPS Act grant — and, per Common Dreams' account of the letter, nine separate government contracts landed within eight months of the investment. A stake in vaping company Juul preceded an FDA reversal on prior product bans. A position in prediction-market platform Polymarket came before the company was cleared to re-enter the U.S. market. Defense contractor Anduril, another 1789 holding, picked up a $22 billion contract weeks after the inauguration and a second, $20 billion Army deal not long after.

"WAS IT INDEED MAGIC? OR WAS IT RANK CORRUPTION, A TOXIC BLEND OF TRADING ON INSIDER KNOWLEDGE, AND THE USE OF INSIDER POLITICAL INFLUENCE?" — REP. JAMIE RASKIN

Trump Jr. has previously waved off the scrutiny. He told The New York Times he and Malik simply made "reasonable assumption" bets that paid off, and the president himself has said his sons have "inside information" on "almost anything they do" — a line Raskin's letter quotes back at the family. 1789 Capital's outside counsel, AJ Merton, dismissed the probe as "unsubstantiated talking points" and "partisan stunts and politically motivated harassment, not oversight," according to Raw Story's reporting. A White House spokesperson added that the president's own holdings are "independently managed by third-party financial institutions" with family members unable to "direct, influence, or provide input."

The catch: Raskin has no power to force anyone's hand. Democrats are in the House minority, and Republicans already blocked a subpoena push over the Vulcan Elements deal back in March. The new letter functions less as an active probe than as a marker — one Democrats are explicit about wanting to revisit with subpoena power if they flip the House this November.

For now, 1789 Capital faces no legal deadline beyond Raskin's own September 9 request, which the firm is under no obligation to honor. But the letter adds fresh fuel to a broader pattern of scrutiny over Trump family financial ties to the administration, arriving the same week Democrats separately opened an inquiry into Trump Media's plan to sell paying Wall Street clients early access to the president's Truth Social posts.