Democrats won both chambers of Congress on November 3 and take the gavels in January. On The Friday Reporter, Lisa Camooso Miller sat down with Brandon Rios and Jake Greenberg, co-leads of DLA Piper's Congressional Investigations Practice, to talk about what comes next for the companies most likely to get a letter.
Brandon served as Democratic counsel on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and later as Special Assistant to the President in the Biden-Harris White House. Jake was general counsel and chief investigations counsel for Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. They spent six years on opposite sides of nearly every major investigation. DLA Piper launched their practice in July 2026.
Why will Congress go through companies instead of the White House?
Because the White House is hard to crack. Brandon described the separation of powers fight as one where the executive branch holds the stronger hand: privilege claims and testimonial immunity can stall a congressional request for a long time. Companies don't benefit from those protections in the same way, or at all. Incoming Democratic chairs plan to run oversight of the administration and private sector investigations in parallel, and to rely on companies for many of the same emails and much of the same information.
What should a company ask itself right now?
Brandon put it in one question: am I a target, or am I a source of information? The follow-up matters just as much. How can I be uninteresting in that conversation?
How have congressional investigations changed?
Jake pointed to social media first. Members clip hearings and transcribed interviews and post them, and the investigations have become the way many Americans know Congress at all. He also described an outside-in strategy, where investigators work the periphery before moving toward the major political target, with constant pressure on staff to deliver results and regular updates.
What's the biggest misconception business leaders have?
That a congressional investigation is litigation. In Brandon's words, it is essentially civil discovery with malleable rules, no judge and everything potentially on TV. The legal work still matters, from internal fact-finding to privilege and document retention. But it is only part of the job. A company needs people who understand the Hill, communications and government affairs working from the same plan.
Jake added a point most executives get wrong. A call to the chairman or a senior staffer rarely makes an investigation go away. The real decisions are made by the staff running it day to day, and those relationships make the difference.
Bring communications in early
Lisa has seen it firsthand. Twenty years ago, a client of hers was called before Congress. The first call with the hearing date came to her, from a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, before the witness knew. The committee told the press first.
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