据Axios审阅的一条短信显示，特朗普的高级顾问里克·格雷内尔去年据称向一名土耳其亿万富翁提出了一项令人震惊的以金钱换取影响力的提议：接触“总统”、“VIP活动”以及政府官员的机会。白宫法律顾问正在调查此事。
Top Trump adviser Ric Grenell allegedly outlined a stunning pay-for-influence offer to a Turkish billionaire last year: access to "POTUS," "VIP events" and administration officials, according to a text message, reviewed by Axios, that the White House counsel is investigating.
- 这条日期为2025年5月3日的短信写道：“一旦钱到这里的公司账上，我就会安排向肯尼迪中心[原文如此]的捐款，你将参加VIP活动，并与政府建立密切关系，甚至能与总统接触。”
• "Once the money comes to the company here, I will arrange the donation to Kennedy Centre [sic], and you'll be joining the VIP events and get close with the administration, even with POTUS," the May 3, 2025, text says.
- 格雷内尔称这些指控是“谎言”，并否认发送过该短信。
• Grenell has called the accusations "lies" and denied sending the text message.
为何重要：政府官员表示，这条短信是白宫调查的关键证据之一。该调查由特朗普总统下令进行，旨在查明格雷内尔是否滥用总统的信任，并挪用了一笔可能高达数百万美元、原本捐给肯尼迪中心的款项——格雷内尔当时领导该中心。
Why it matters: Administration officials say the text is a key piece of evidence in the White House's investigation — ordered by President Trump — into whether Grenell abused the president's trust and misappropriated a potential multimillion-dollar donation to the Kennedy Center, which Grenell led at the time.
- 格雷内尔还担任过另一个由特朗普任命的职务：委内瑞拉问题特使，而土耳其商人图尔汉·米尔登在委内瑞拉也拥有合同。
• Grenell also served in another Trump-appointed capacity: as special envoy to Venezuela, where Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon also had contracts.
- 据称格雷内尔在2025年同一批短信中还对米尔登写道：“我们需要让你成为委内瑞拉的‘美国面孔’。”据熟悉调查的消息人士称，米尔登的律师已将这条短信、至少一份财务文件及其他通信记录发送给白宫法律顾问办公室。
• "We need to make you the 'American face' down in V," Grenell allegedly wrote in the same 2025 text message to Mildon, whose attorneys sent the text, at least one financial document and other correspondence to the White House counsel's office, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
- 米尔登的妻子是另一位特朗普顾问：前新泽西州联邦检察官阿丽娜·哈巴。据Axios率先报道，哈巴于10月9日冲进椭圆形办公室，指控格雷内尔诱骗她丈夫向肯尼迪中心捐款，而这笔钱从未到账。
• Mildon is married to another Trump adviser: former U.S. attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba, who stormed into the Oval Office on Oct. 9 and accused Grenell of hoodwinking her husband into making a Kennedy Center donation that never arrived, Axios first reported. Zoom in:
深入了解：哈巴和米尔登的律师已告知白宫，这一涉嫌计划的核心是一笔涉及休斯敦一家私营国防公司软件与刚果民主共和国的金融交易。
关键事实：
At the heart of the alleged scheme is a financial transaction involving a private Houston-based defense company's software and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Habba and Mildon's attorneys have told the White House.
- 米尔登（Mildon）指控，在格伦内尔（Grenell）的指示下，他向德克萨斯武器与技术公司（Texas Armament & Technology, TXAT）转账了1760万美元。他表示这笔钱原本计划分成两部分：一部分用于刚果相关的项目，另一部分（近600万美元）则用于肯尼迪中心（Kennedy Center）。
• Mildon alleges that at Grenell's direction, Mildon wired $17.6 million to Texas Armament & Technology. He says the money was to be split in roughly two parts: one for the Congo deal and nearly $6 million for the Kennedy Center.
- 为支持自己的指控，米尔登提供了2025年的相关文件，其中提到了对肯尼迪中心的捐款以及与刚果相关的交易细节。发件人还在邮件中询问：“有一封邮件已经发给你了，请帮忙看一下好吗？”
• To back up his claims, Mildon provided the 2025 text that discussed the Kennedy Center donation and Congo "software." In the text to Mildon, the sender also says, "There is an e-mail that was sent to you, can you please take a look at it for me ?"
- 据消息人士透露，这封邮件以及2025年5月29日的财务记录也被提交给了白宫；财务记录显示确实有1760万美元被转入了TXAT公司。
• That email also was furnished to the White House, as was a May 29, 2025, financial record showing $17.6 million was wired to the company, known by its initials TXAT, sources said. It would be 17 months
- 米尔登直到17个月后才得知：他按照格伦内尔的指示转账的这笔钱实际上并未被用于肯尼迪中心。
before Mildon learned that the Kennedy Center never received the money that he thought was included in the wire he sent at Grenell's direction, Habba told the president.
故事中的疑点：
The intrigue
- 这笔刚果相关合同的性质是什么？它与肯尼迪中心有什么关系？相关的财务细节又是怎样的？
Here's where the story gets mysterious and murky. It's unclear what the Congo contract was for, how it related to the Kennedy Center or what the financial specifics were.
- 虽然文件中未提及TXAT或肯尼迪中心的财务数据，但知情人士表示，提交给白宫的其他文件中确实包含了具体的财务信息。
• The text doesn't mention any financial numbers, either for TXAT or the Kennedy Center. But a source familiar with the situation said that other correspondence furnished to the White House does have financial specifics.
- 实际上，这笔1760万美元并非来自米尔登的银行账户，而是从刚果首都金沙萨的“财政部”（Ministère des Finances）转出的。米尔登在金沙萨有业务往来，因此能够接触到相关财务信息。
• The financial transaction sent to TXAT didn't appear to come from Mildon's bank account, as Habba initially indicated to Trump. Instead, the $17.6 million was wired to TXAT from Congo's "Ministère des Finances" in Kinshasa, the capital city, where Mildon has business and access to finances, a White House official said.
- 米尔登的发言人拒绝置评；TXAT公司及刚果政府的发言人也无法被联系到。
• A spokesman for Mildon would not comment. Spokespeople for TXAT and Congo's government couldn't be reached.
- 这名白宫官员表示：“我们正在试图查明这笔钱的真正所有者。”
• "We're trying to find out whose money this is," the official said.
情况更加复杂的是：在哈巴（Habba）首次向特朗普报告这笔钱可能被挪用后，她所提供的数字不断发生变化（即涉及的金额不断变动）。
Complicating the matter further: Habba's numbers kept changing after she first alerted Trump to the alleged theft of the Kennedy Center money.
- 起初，她称向肯尼迪中心的捐款金额为1700万美元。
• At first she said the Kennedy Center contribution was for $17 million.
- 与米尔多恩交谈后，她又改口称实际金额约为600万美元，最终确定的数字似乎是560万美元。
• Then she said it was about $6 million after talking to Mildon. The exact figure seems to be $5.6 million.
另一方说法：格雷内尔拒绝就本文内容发表评论。他此前曾对Axios表示，针对他的指控“荒谬至极”。
The other side: Grenell, who declined to comment for this article, previously told Axios that the claims against him are "absurd."
- “我从未要求将一分钱以‘捐给肯尼迪中心’的名义转至其他地方，也从未收到过他支付的任何款项，”他说道，“应该让他拿出证据来证明自己的说法，而不是散布这些荒谬的指控。”
• "I've never asked for one cent to be sent somewhere else pretending it was for the Kennedy Center, and I've never received any payment from him at all," he said. "Make him give proof to what he is saying, not make these absurd allegations."
- 据一位了解格雷内尔想法的消息人士透露，当有人告知他那条短信的具体措辞后，他激烈否认自己发过该短信，理由是“中心”一词在英式英语中拼作“centre”。
• When told of the text message's exact wording, Grenell hotly denied he sent it because "center" was spelled in British English as "centre," a source briefed on his thinking said.
- 格雷内尔的盟友们也对诸多细节提出质疑：包括米尔多恩作为商人的背景、他的人际交往圈、他的年龄（他现年29岁，但部分记录显示他只有25岁），以及上个月他与42岁的哈巴举行的耗资1000万美元的婚礼——两人从去年才开始交往。
• Grenell's allies also have questioned everything from Mildon's background as a businessman to his associates, his age (he's 29 but some records indicate he's 25) and his $10 million wedding last month to Habba, 42, whom he began dating last year. Friction point:
矛盾导火索：《纽约时报》在调查米尔多恩在委内瑞拉的活动期间，他与自2024年起就交好的格雷内尔发生了争执。
As the New York Times examined Mildon's activities in Venezuela, he had a falling out with Grenell, with whom he had been friendly since 2024.
- 2025年，米尔多恩在肯尼迪中心结识了哈巴。
• Mildon met Habba in 2025 at the Kennedy Center. Inside the room:
白宫内部情况： 10月9日，哈巴抵达白宫时显得“情绪十分激动”，一位政府官员这样描述。她甚至高声喊道：“里克偷走了那笔钱！”
On Oct. 9, when Habba arrived at the White House, she was "pretty animated," said one administration official, and exclaimed at one point, "Ric stole the money!" • The problem, however, was that Habba "didn't have all her stuff in order.
- 不过问题在于，这位消息人士指出：“哈巴并未把相关材料准备齐全，她没掌握全部事实就贸然闯入白宫，指责格雷内尔偷钱。可事实却一直在变化。这并不代表里克就能洗清嫌疑，整件事看起来十分可疑。”
She went in there half-cocked without all the facts yelling about Grenell stealing. And the facts keep changing," the source said. "That doesn't mean Ric is out of the woods.
- 据消息人士透露，哈巴提出这些指控后，特朗普把白宫法律顾问威尔·沙尔夫叫进椭圆形办公室，要求他调查这些说法是否属实。
This looks really shady." • After Habba leveled her accusations, Trump called White House Counsel Will Scharf into Oval Office and asked him to look into her claims, sources said.
随后，特朗普与沙尔夫给格雷内尔打电话，格雷内尔全盘否认这些指控，并称如果真有1700万美元的捐款，他肯定会立刻通知所有人。
Trump and Scharf then phoned Grenell, who denied everything and said he would have instantly alerted everyone to the idea of a $17 million contribution.
- “这根本不可能是真的。这太疯狂了，”格雷内尔在某个时刻对特朗普如此说道，一位了解讨论情况的消息人士透露。
• "There's no way this is true. This is crazy," Grenell told Trump at one point, according to a source briefed on the discussion.
幕后情况：沙尔夫上周早些时候就对哈巴的说法产生了怀疑，因为她和米尔顿的律师最初提供记录以协助其调查的速度很慢，一位消息人士称。他们在周五提交了文件。
Behind the scenes: Scharf grew skeptical of Habba's claims early last week because she and Mildon's attorneys were initially slow to furnish any records to help his inquiry, said a source. They submitted the documents on Friday.
- 沙尔夫仍在收集证据，并计划核实2025年这条短信的数字足迹，消息人士称，并指出该短信的打印件上格雷内尔的图像与其智能手机联系人卡片显示的图像完全相同。
• Scharf is still gathering evidence and plans to verify the digital footprint of the 2025 text, the source said, noting that a printout of the message has the same image of Grenell that appears on his smartphone contact card display.
- 肯尼迪中心内部人士也曾联系白宫，并表示他们经常在该设施的独家活动中看到米尔顿，表明他是一位大额捐助者。这包括他在副总统包厢（紧邻总统包厢）的出现，一位消息人士称。
• Kennedy Center insiders also have contacted the White House and said they frequently saw Mildon at exclusive events at the facility, indicating he was a big donor. That includes appearances in the vice president's box, next to the president's, a source said. • "Here's where Alina might be telling the truth: Mildon did get access. So why did he get access?
- “阿莉娜可能在这里说真话：米尔顿确实获得了进入权限。那么他为什么能获得进入权限？他是否在与里克一起在刚果开展业务？如果捐款从未支付，他为何能获得如此多的进入权限？”一位政府官员问道。
Was he doing business in Congo with Ric? Why so much access if the contribution was never paid?" one of the administration officials asked.
- “问题很多。而总统想要答案。”
• "There's a lot of questions. And POTUS wants answers."