众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯（民主党，纽约州）誓言，如果民主党在下个月的中期选举中赢得众议院控制权，将立即对特朗普总统、其家人以及在他第二任期初期从中获利的其他亲信所涉及的腐败指控展开调查。杰弗里斯周四在布鲁克林选区举行的新闻发布会上说道：“从‘特朗普集团’的所作所为来看，他们更关心的是让自己、家人、朋友以及捐助者发财致富，而非切实改善美国民众的生活水平。我们在新一届国会中向全国民众承诺：从就职第一天起，我们就会让这些违法乱纪之徒付出代价。”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is vowing that Democrats, if they win the House in next month’s midterms, will launch immediate investigations into corruption allegations against President Trump, his family and other associates who have benefited financially during the early years of his second term. “What we’ve seen from the Trump cartel is that they’re more focused on enriching themselves, their family members, their friends and their donors than they are with making life more affordable for the American people,” Jeffries said Thursday during a press conference in his Brooklyn district. “And our promise to the country in the new Congress is that, beginning on Day 1, we’re going to hold the crooks accountable.”
近期，关于政府官员、捐助者及顾问借助与白宫的关系谋取私利或试图牟利的报道层出不穷。上周，《纽约时报》报道称，在美国政府试图促成俄乌和平协议的过程中，一项涉及俄罗斯石油贸易的协议正在酝酿之中，该协议有望让一位向特朗普捐款的亿万富翁以及与总统女婿贾里德·库什纳关系密切的中东商人从中获利。
The remarks come amid a flurry of new reports about administration officials, donors and advisers profiting, or seeking to profit, from their connections to the White House. Last week, The New York Times reported that the administration’s efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine featured an emerging agreement over Russian oil that’s poised to benefit a billionaire Trump donor and Middle Eastern businessmen with ties to Jared Kushner, the president’s son in law.
周二，《纽约时报》又披露，特朗普竞选团队的两名高级顾问克里斯·拉西维塔与詹姆斯·布莱尔收受了数十万美元报酬，用于协助与俄罗斯结盟的巴尔干地区右翼政客连任。一天之后，《华尔街日报》报道称，唐纳德·特朗普小儿子的前未婚妻、现任美国驻希腊大使金伯利·吉尔福伊曾施压一位富有的特朗普捐助者，要求其偿还10万美元的信用卡债务以换取政治上的好处。
On Tuesday, The Times reported that a pair of top campaign advisers, Chris LaCivita and James Blair, had been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to help reelect right-wing Balkan politicians allied with Russia. That was followed a day later by a Wall Street Journal report revealing that Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former fiancé of Donald Trump, Jr., and now the U.S. ambassador to Greece, had pressured a wealthy Trump donor to pay off $100,000 in credit card debt in return for political favors.
“这完全就是一种利益交换，”这位名叫埃里克·德特斯的捐助者周四在接受MS NOW采访时说道。此类事件引发了国会内外民主党人的强烈愤慨。
“It absolutely was a quid pro quo,” the Trump donor, Eric Deters, said Thursday in an interview with MS NOW. Such episodes have outraged Democrats on and off of Capitol Hill.
党内许多自由派人士一直在推动对特朗普政府进行弹劾——不过杰弗里斯及其他民主党领袖至今仍对此持保留态度。他们的重心在于将此次竞选活动打造成一次关于特朗普第二任期内高物价与经济动荡问题的全民公投。民主党领袖们承诺将迅速推行一系列立法措施，包括撤销关税、结束对伊朗的战争以及撤销削减医疗补助的政策，以期减轻民众的经济负担。
Many liberals in the party are already pushing for impeachments — a step Jeffries and other Democratic leaders have so far resisted. Their focus has been to make the campaign a referendum on the high cost of living and economic volatility that’s accompanied Trump’s second term. Party leaders are vowing quick action on a series of legislative fixes — rolling back tariffs, ending the Iran War, reversing Medicaid cuts — designed to ease consumer costs.
而杰弗里斯还承诺会立即着手调查政府内部可能存在的腐败行为，此举旨在打消自由派人士的顾虑，向他们传递一个信号：对经济的关注绝不会妨碍追究公职人员失职行为的努力。此前，由于国会两院均由特朗普所属的共和党人掌控，此类调查几乎未曾开展过。不过，各调查委员会中的民主党领袖们——尤其是监督委员会与司法委员会的成员——都誓言一旦掌握话语权，定会改变这一现状。
But Jeffries’s promise to launch an immediate and parallel effort to investigate potential corruption in the administration aims to ease the liberals’ concerns, sending a message that the economic focus won’t distract from efforts to hold public officials accountable for wrongdoing. Such investigations have been virtually non-existent while both chambers of Congress have been controlled by Trump's GOP allies. But the top Democrats on the various investigative committees — most notably the Oversight and Judiciary Committees — are vowing to change that if they get the gavels.