今年1月，众议院共和党人传唤前特别检察官杰克·史密斯到国会山时，这位检察官可能原本会面临一系列与他针对时任前总统唐纳德·特朗普的刑事案件相关的问题。但实际情况并非如此。
When House Republicans summoned former special counsel Jack Smith to Capitol Hill in January, the prosecutor probably expected a series of questions related to his criminal cases against then-former President Donald Trump. That’s not quite what happened.
相反，共和党议员们似乎更关注卡西迪·哈钦森——她曾是白宫前幕僚长马克·梅多斯的一名助理，在特朗普的第一个任期内担任其得力助手。
Instead, GOP lawmakers seemed preoccupied with, of all people, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who served as Trump’s right hand in his first term.
在作证时，史密斯明确表示，哈钦森的证词对他决定对特朗普提起刑事诉讼几乎没有任何影响。但国会共和党人显然并不在意：两个月后，共和党的“1月6日委员会”——该委员会旨在作为对真正跨党派“1月6日特别委员会”的保守派制衡力量——要求特朗普的司法部起诉哈钦森，指控她在2022年的国会作证中作伪证。
In his testimony, Smith made clear that Hutchinson’s testimony played little to no role in his decision to bring criminal charges against Trump. Congressional Republicans apparently didn’t much care: Two months later, the GOP’s Jan. 6 committee — which is intended to serve as a conservative counterweight to the actual, bipartisan Jan. 6 select committee — asked Trump’s Justice Department to go after Hutchinson alleging she lied to Congress during her 2022 testimony.
通常情况下，当国会议员将某人移交司法部起诉时，这听起来可能很轰动，但并不能保证检察官会认真对待这一移交。司法部或许会感谢议员们提供的涉嫌不当行为的线索，但也同样有可能完全忽略这一建议。
As a rule, when members of Congress refer someone to the Justice Department for prosecution, it sounds dramatic, but there’s no guarantee prosecutors will take the referral seriously. The DOJ might appreciate a heads-up from lawmakers about suspected wrongdoing, but it’s just as likely to ignore the recommendation.
在这种情况下，常理认为，司法部应该会忽视对哈钦森的刑事移交，将其视为一场政治作秀，而非严肃的建议。然而事实却恰恰相反。
In this case, common sense suggested that Main Justice would blow off a criminal referral of Hutchinson, recognizing it as more of a political stunt than a serious suggestion. As it turns out, the opposite has happened.
《今日美国》本周确认，司法部正在寻求对哈钦森提出联邦刑事指控，而且就在周二，司法部民权司还向联邦大陪审团提交了证据。
MS NOW confirmed this week that the Justice Department is seeking a federal criminal indictment against Hutchinson, and as recently as Tuesday, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division had presented evidence to a federal grand jury.
这些进展发生在《纽约时报》报道数月之后。当时，时任司法部长帕姆·邦迪在被解雇前，为了极力取悦特朗普，亲自介入了此案，并对哈钦森展开调查，无视了司法部官员们对是否存在可行刑事案件的质疑。
The developments come several months after The New York Times reported then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, desperate to impress Trump before she was fired, personally intervened in the case and initiated an inquiry into Hutchinson, ignoring DOJ officials who expressed skepticism about whether there was a viable criminal case.
另一份《纽约时报》的报道指出，时任副司法部长托德·布朗奇——他后来接替了邦迪——也曾“敦促检察官调查”这位前白宫助理。
separate Times report noted that then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — who has since succeeded Bondi — also “pushed prosecutors to investigate” the former White House aide.
随后，此案被移交给了哈米特·迪隆，这位备受争议的特朗普忠实派人士负责管理民权司，但该部门似乎对这类案件并无相关管辖权。
The matter was then given to Harmeet Dhillon, the controversial Trump loyalist who runs the Civil Rights Division, which wouldn’t appear to have any relevant jurisdiction over a case like this.
这项调查最终会得出什么结果，时间会给出答案。但哈钦森成为特朗普团队的目标这一事实本身，就证明了一个扭曲的政治环境：人们若得罪了现任总统，就可能面临检察官的审查，而这位总统仍迫切希望利用联邦权力的杠杆，惩罚任何他认为的敌人。
Time will tell what, if anything, comes of the investigation, but the fact that Hutchinson is a Team Trump target is itself evidence of a twisted political environment in which people can expect to face prosecutorial scrutiny for having wronged the incumbent president, who remains desperate to use the levers of federal power to punish anyone he perceives as an enemy.
需要指出的是，在卡什·帕特尔成为FBI局长之前，他曾将哈钦森列入其臭名昭著的“政府黑帮”敌人名单。根据公开信息，没有理由相信哈钦森——她在四年多前就1月6日事件作出了令人震惊的证词——有任何不当行为。但总统本人已在社交媒体上提及哈钦森，显然他掌控着司法部，而布朗奇也已明确表示，他认为特朗普试图利用联邦执法机构惩罚对手并无不妥。此事值得持续关注。
It’s worth noting for context that Kash Patel, prior to the podcast personality becoming the FBI director, included Hutchinson on his notorious “government gangsters” enemies list Based on the publicly available information, there’s no reason to believe Hutchinson, who delivered stunning testimony more than four years ago about what transpired on Jan. 6, did anything wrong. But the president himself has used his social media platform to talk about Hutchinson he clearly controls the DOJ and Blanche has already made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t see a problem with Trump trying to use federal law enforcement to punish his foes. Watch this space. The post Why Trump’s Justice Department is still trying to indict Cassidy Hutchinson MS NOW