Corruption allegations are already emerging from the White House, with a Republican-led Congress showing little willingness to hold the executive branch to account. That means once Congress becomes a genuine investigative arm of government after November, Americans may confront far more than the tip of a very ugly iceberg. The mechanics hinge on the November midterms, which will determine control of the House and Senate — and with them, the committee chairmanships, staff, and subpoena power that form the core of congressional investigations.

Gerard Baker, a columnist at The Times and editor at large at The Wall Street Journal, warned on Friday that Americans will not like what they are about to see.

"One or two Democrats are already planning to lead these investigations, and I think some of the stuff that they will investigate will actually look really, really bad," Baker told Washington editor and Times columnist Katy Balls on Friday (watch the interview).

Baker noted that the country is already familiar with allegations that members of President Donald Trump's family have used their connections to enrich themselves. Former Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle was recently forced to resign after a Trump donor shared text messages alleging she had asked him for $100,000 in exchange for White House influence. People familiar with the contract services of former Trump attorney Alina Habba claim she was granted a plush private job specifically to help a billionaire obtain a pardon. Prominent Venezuelan Julio Herrera Velutini sought clemency from Trump and received it not long after his daughter gave Habba that lucrative position. There are also broader allegations involving Trump family members and the family of Steve Witkoff, and deals they have managed to secure while serving in international diplomatic capacities.

"All of that came out, thankfully, due to journalistic efforts," said Baker. "It's mostly been reporting by journalists with no assist from Congress, which has power to do so much more if Democrats take control. And they will have all the powers Congress has, complete with all of the staff and all of the legal authorities that they'll have. And I think there's a lot more to come out, I suspect."

Those authorities center on the power to compel document production and sworn testimony — tools that underpinned some of the most consequential investigations in modern American history, from the Senate Watergate hearings of 1973 to the Church Committee's review of the intelligence community two years later.

Baker invoked the "iceberg theory of scandals" — the idea that what the public initially sees is only a fraction of what actually exists. He cautioned that eyes may "glaze over" at the sheer volume of revelations, given how accustomed the public has become to Trump-style corruption.

But what could truly stagger the nation, he argued, are the national security implications that begin to surface once a Democratic-controlled Congress starts digging.

"If there's some evidence of some of the stuff that's come out around Kimberly Guilfoyle, if there's evidence that people got favors from the administration, that foreigners got favors from the administration in exchange for money or other things that those people wanted we could start to see some really ugly stuff about what exactly the administration has been doing for the last two years, wittingly or unwittingly in terms of America's foreign policy and National interest," said Baker.

"I think that's the real danger here, not just for Republicans and for Trump but actually for the country," Baker warned, pointing to the loss of public faith in government driven by Trump's corruption.

Balls added that with Trump's children and family associates having their weddings funded by Russian oligarchs, U.S. integrity could be shaken to the ground. Whether that reporting is ever tested through formal hearings and compelled witness testimony now hinges on November's results, with the next Congress seated in January.

This article originally appeared on Alternet.