Even before taking control of Congress in the US midterm elections on Tuesday, Democrats were planning how they would use their power if they won it.
Control of the House and Senate gives the party power to issue subpoenas - summons to testify or produce documents - as well as additional funding to launch investigations early next year.
Democrats have been weighing whether to investigate senior figures in the Trump administration - and possibly the president himself. Staffers have begun assembling a list of possible investigations and witnesses, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Here are a few potential targets within their sights.
1. Trump's family and finances
Democrats have made it clear that lucrative deals brokered by the Trump family's vast business empire will be primary targets of any initial investigations.
"We want to make sure that [American] taxpayer dollars are being used wisely and not being stolen or pocketed because of corruption," Virginia Democratic Representative Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the House Oversight Committee, told the BBC.
Items under consideration for investigation include ties between the administration and corporate entities - particularly cryptocurrency firms - as well as the international business dealings of the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Other topics could include the $400m (£301m) aircraft gifted by Qatar to serve as Air Force One and multimillion-dollar defence contracts awarded to firms linked to the Trump family.
"What's shocking to me is not only that this administration, cabinet officials and even the president and his family have been corrupt and self-dealing, but they've been so brazen and open about it," Subramanyam said.
The White House has repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
"President Trump is focused on retaining Republican majorities in Congress and doubling down on the progress he has made to lower costs for families," White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said.
"Democrats have no agenda to improve the lives of the American people, just plans to obstruct and baselessly target President Trump's commonsense agenda," she added.
A White House official said the administration is "always prepared" to respond to oversight requests regardless of who is in Congress.
2. Hegseth and the Pentagon
Democratic lawmakers have vowed to look into Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's handling of the war with Iran that began in February - including the number of civilian casualties, munitions shortfalls, spending and claims of poorly prepared troops and facilities.
Other topics, according to a source familiar with the discussions, could include boat strikes in the Caribbean that the administration says are aimed at stopping the flow of drugs into the US.
In April, a group of House Democrats filed rare articles of impeachment against Hegseth. They cited the war in Iran and accused him of "high crimes and misdemeanours".
Impeachment requires only a simple majority in the House, but conviction - and removal from office - would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate. No cabinet official has ever been removed this way.
Some experts believe that the negative publicity that would come from congressional hearings could ultimately lead to Hegseth being fired or resigning from the position.
"[If] it looks bad for the White House, and it's a drag on their media attention, President Trump might be likely to cut loose those officials, because he doesn't want that bad press," said David Miller, a political science professor and expert on the presidency at American University in Washington DC. "In a sense that could be a win for the Democrats."
Richard Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush, told the BBC that the decision to launch the war should come under scrutiny.
"The bigger issue is this: this war was never authorised by the United States Congress, and I don't care who the secretary of defence is," he said.
"The constitution says that Congress declares war," he said, and lawmakers should "haul these folks in" to answer questions.
In a statement, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson defended Hegseth's record, calling him a "transformative leader" who has "slashed bureaucracy, unleashed innovation, and delivered for our warfighters".
"By every measurable metric, the Department of War is better under Secretary Hegseth's leadership than before," she said, using the administration's preferred name for the defence department.
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