Democrats launching probe into Trump, Lutnick links with Moroun after Gordie Howe bridge threat

Democrats in Washington say they’re launching an investigation into the Trump administration and its links to the Ambassador Bridge's owner after the U.S. president threatened to block the opening of the competing Gordie Howe International Bridge earlier this week. 

The top Democrat on the House oversight committee has requested that the administration turn over a wide range of records related to the new bridge, as well as any communications with Matthew Moroun.

The bridges, which are within about five kilometres of each other, link Windsor, Ont., to Detroit.

“It appears that you have chosen to protect a politically connected billionaire donor family at the expense of promoting American commerce,” California Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee’s ranking member, wrote in a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick this week.

The Democrats' move comes after the New York Times reported that Donald Trump issued the threat only hours after Lutnick met with Moroun in Washington, then spoke by phone with the president about the meeting. 

The Moroun family has owned and controlled the nearly 100-year-old Ambassador Bridge for decades, and has long opposed the construction of a new, publicly owned span down the Detroit River, which will likely cut into their commercial truck toll income. 

The Morouns are heavy Republican donors and the Ambassador Bridge company has spent millions lobbying the Trump administration since his first term. 

“Political interference and a resulting delay or blocking of the opening of the long planned Gordie Howe International Bridge is likely to result in prolonged congestion and risks the disruption of cross-border production schedules, increasing costs for American manufacturers, and jeopardizing the U.S. auto industry,” Garcia wrote in the letter.

A half-dozen Democratic House members who represent districts in Michigan have also taken aim at the Trump administration in the wake of his bridge threats. 

They've introduced a bill to prohibit the president or any other federal officials from impeding the opening “or attempt the closure of the Gordie Howe International Bridge and its associated port of entry unless approved by an Act of Congress or requested by the governor of Michigan.” 

The bill, titled the Michigan-Canada Partnership Act, has been referred to the House’s foreign affairs committee for further consideration. 

But unless Republicans lend their support to both the bill and the investigation, they’re unlikely to be successful in the House, where Democrats are in the minority and have limited powers.

A spokesperson for Republican Rep. James Comer, chair of the oversight panel who's from Kentucky, did not respond to a request for comment.

On Friday, the Democratic House members from Michigan joined the state's two senators in penning a letter to Trump telling him that his comments earlier this week put economic benefits and "years of bipartisan work towards the opening of the bridge in jeopardy."

The comments came "as a shock," the lawmakers wrote, considering the president's past support for the new bridge and the work of his administration so far.

The letter says that just two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published a rule formally establishing the Gordie Howe bridge as an official port of entry.

The rule is effective March 2, and says that the "final steps necessary prior to opening the Gordie Howe International Bridge border crossing, including the assignment of CBP officers, have [...] been completed."

"The public will benefit greatly from the new crossing facility at GHIB," the document notes.

In their letter, the Democrats say they "understand and share" Trump's "desire to reduce offshoring of U.S. businesses while increasing the supply of good-paying American jobs," but that "threatening the opening of this essentially completed project will do just the opposite to our shared goal."

"Businesses will suffer, jobs will be lost, and our local, state, and national economies will undoubtedly face significant damage," they wrote.

They also urged Trump to work with Prime Minister Mark Carney "to address our ongoing trade relationship as a separate issue, for which we stand ready to assist."