A Main Line lawyer is building a team to defend Trump from an expected ‘subpoena-palooza’

As Democrats in Washington prepare to launch a flurry of investigations into President Donald Trump and his allies once they assume control of Congress in January, one Philadelphia-area lawyer is gearing up for battle.

Wally Zimolong, a conservative attorney on the Main Line who has worked for Republican causes, including the unsuccessful efforts to overturn the president’s loss in the 2020 election, said his firm is assembling a team of trial lawyers to defend Trump administration officials when Democrats take control of Congress in January.

Incoming Democratic leaders have vowed to hold Trump and his Cabinet accountable. Their sweeping wins in the midterm elections, they’ve said, gives them a broad mandate to act not just on voters’ top-of-mind affordability issues but also on what they’ve described as the most corrupt administration in history.

Warning of an unprecedented “subpoena-palooza,” Zimolong said the situation is all-hands-on-deck.

“Anybody that had any interaction with the Trump administration is going to be a potential target,” he said. “That’s certainly how we’re treating it.”

Less than 12 hours after the “blue tsunami” became apparent last week, Zimolong and his Wayne-based firm announced the plan they’d been discussing for months: a Congressional Investigations and Lawfare Defense Task Force.

The group’s intention is to defend Trump officials as well as private third-parties associated with the White House. That includes businesses that have come under scrutiny for working with the government or donating to the president’s projects.

The top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, for instance, on Monday sent letters to nine federal agencies and 27 private companies to preserve records that may be relevant to congressional inquiries. The list included major corporations like Chevron, United Airlines and TikTok, which Democrats have said may have received special treatment after donating to this year’s 250th anniversary events.

“[T]o every agency official and corporate executive receiving these letters: save everything,” U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat who is poised to become the committee’s chair in January, said in a statement. “The American people deserve to know what you did with their government and their money, and we intend to get them answers.”

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, another California Democrat set to chair the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had a more succinct election night message: “Lawyer up.”

Zimolong said he believed Garcia’s statement showcased an intention by Democrats not to engage in legitimate investigations that fulfill their legislative and oversight duties but to take an illegal and “prosecutorial” approach that the public doesn’t want.

He pointed to the failed attempt, initiated by an outgoing Republican and supported by House Democrats, this week to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Democrats promised to try again when they have a sizable majority in January, revisiting accusations that Hegseth violated the Constitution while waging the war in Iran, ignoring laws intended to limit civilian casualties and more. Zimolong said the idea that Hegseth committed high crimes or misdemeanors by following the commander in chief’s orders was “ridiculous” and “political retribution, plain and simple.”

“If Democrats want to spend their perceived legislative mandate on investigations and subpoenas rather than focusing on the wants and needs of the American people … then it’s going to be a short reign for Democrats,” Zimolong said. “In some ways, if that’s how they want to spend their time, I welcome it because it’s the quickest way for Republicans to regain control of Congress.”

Zimolong is a longtime Trump supporter who has represented Republican clients in some high-profile Pennsylvania election cases.

In 2020, he worked outside of the Trump campaign to invalidate ballots cast in the Pennsylvania election as the president spread false claims that widespread fraud led to his loss. Four years later, he represented the Trump campaign as well as Republican Dave McCormick’s U.S. Senate campaign and the Republican National Committee in lawsuits around election administration — including a successful move in Bucks County to extend a deadline for voters to apply for, receive and cast mail ballots in person.

This year, he has represented Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Abington Township neighbors in a land dispute, as well as a Lehigh Valley congressional candidate who made a last-ditch effort to get on the ballot in highly competitive race as a Green Party nominee but who Democrats believed was part of a disguised GOP effort to draw votes from the Democratic nominee, Bob Brooks, who went on to win the seat.

Zimolong, in an interview with The Inquirer, said he did not “coordinate with anybody” in the congressional race and the Shapiro situation was not “a Republican thing.”

“People think it’s sort of coordinated and we all get together and plan these things out,” he said. “That’s not the way the world works.”

Zimolong said he and his colleagues began considering the task force in the spring when it looked like Republicans might lose control of Congress in the midterms. He said they spoke “to a wide range of stakeholders that may be affected by this,” though he declined to name any individuals or groups because of confidentiality concerns. The team of lawyers is still being built out, and he said he’s confident that both outside counsel and those working in the Department of Justice were equipped to handle the upcoming investigations, whether he’s part of the defense or not.

“I’m not worried about anything. I don’t think it’s going to get very far,” he said.

Still, he said he expects a robust court battle that will “test the limits of executive privilege” — possibly unlike anything since Watergate, when President Richard Nixon unsuccessfully fought to keep White House recordings private. Zimolong said the Trump administration is “correctly” signaling that it will take “a very aggressive view on executive privilege” that protects its communications and those of cabinet officials.

In a clear sign of the clash ahead, White House Counsel William Scharf sent a letter to Garcia on Monday that claimed Democrats had issued “abusive and capricious threats,” and that their actions to issue “unlawful subpoenas … may warrant further investigation.” One of the comments the White House noted was from U.S. Rep. Analilia Mejia (D., N.J.), who wrote on social media, “We’re going to toss out subpoenas like Mardi Gras beads.”

Garcia responded in a statement, saying the new Congress “will not be deterred by baseless threats from a weaponized DOJ or from the president’s lawyers.” The lawmaker has indicated he will pursue investigations into Trump’s family’s business dealings — which he’s referred to as the “Trump Crime Family” — as well as the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files and immigration enforcement “abuses” by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.

Another investigation topic could be Trump’s personal settlement with the Department of Justice this year. The deal included a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund that Trump launched to compensate individuals who the administration believed to be the victims of political prosecution, though both Democrats and Republicans raised deep concerns and it was blocked by the courts. Zimolong and his firm applauded its creation in May.

Democrats are set to begin their investigations around the sixth anniversary of another Philadelphia-area attorney stepping into the spotlight to defend Trump. After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Trump selected former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. to lead his defense team during his impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. Castor’s performance was panned by some of the president’s allies, though Trump was acquitted and made a historic comeback in 2024.

After another boundary-pushing two years, Zimolong said Democrats are preparing to unfairly target Trump and nearly anyone in his orbit.

“I like to say that if you look at the White House, you’re a potential target,” Zimolong said. “Obviously, that’s in jest. But, depending on which member you speak to or … which member statements you read, it’s not that far off.”