唐纳德·特朗普对众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔发起的刑事调查——旨在剥夺她的公民身份——远不止是对一位直言批评者的又一次攻击。正如许多人已经指出的，这场剥夺公民身份的行动本身就是对宪法秩序的冲击。它等同于宣告一种独裁或沙皇式的权力，即主权者可以随意将任何对手宣布为“人民的敌人”，并通过法令甚至剥夺反对派合法当选代表的正当性。
Donald Trump’s criminal investigation into Representative Ilhan Omar—which is aimed at stripping her citizenship—is far more than just another attack on a vocal critic. As many have noted, this denaturalization push is an assault on the constitutional order itself. It amounts to a declaration of dictatorial or czar-like power, in which the sovereign can declare any foe an “enemy of the people” at will and delegitimize even the opposition’s duly elected representatives by fiat.
这一切引出了一个问题：民主党人能对此做些什么吗？嗯，是的，他们实际上可以。
All of which raises a question: Can Democrats do anything about this? Well, yes, they actually can.
众议院资深民主党人告诉我，如果他们赢得多数席位，他们正在讨论采取一项重大举措：动用财政大权，对抗对特朗普批评者的非法迫害。这可能包括有针对性地削减对特朗普毫无根据地下令进行的调查和起诉的拨款。民主党人还计划广泛动用传票权，针对多个层级的官员，以揭露特朗普命令下属执行这些指令的腐败过程——包括对奥马尔的调查和预计将进行的起诉。
Senior House Democrats tell me they’re discussing a dramatic step, should they win the majority: wielding the power of the purse against the illicit persecution of Trump critics. This could entail targeted efforts to defund investigations and prosecutions ordered up baselessly by Trump. Democrats also plan to extensively deploy subpoena power against officials at many levels to expose the corrupt processes by which Trump orders underlings to carry out these directives—including the investigation and expected prosecution of Omar.
“我们将积极而有力地调查此案，”华盛顿州民主党众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔告诉我。“我们可能会推动立法，确保不在这项调查上花费任何资金。”马里兰州民主党众议员杰米·拉斯金将在民主党占多数时担任司法委员会主席，他补充说，他的委员会将与民主党拨款委员协商，制定一种针对腐败起诉的联合削减拨款策略。
“We will actively and aggressively investigate this case,” Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington state, told me. “We will probably have legislation to make sure there are no funds expended on this investigation.”Representative Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who will chair the Judiciary Committee in a Democratic majority, adds that his committee will confer with Democratic appropriators to develop a kind of joint defunding strategy against corrupt prosecutions.
“我们掌握着财政大权，”拉斯金对我说。“我们将与拨款委员会的合作伙伴密切合作，确保我们竭尽所能切断用于政治骚扰和迫害的资金。”贾亚帕尔、拉斯金以及另外170多名众议院民主党人刚刚发出一封信——《新共和国》杂志获得了这封信——信中严厉谴责特朗普对奥马尔采取的行动。
“We have the power of the purse,” Raskin told me. “We’ll be working closely with our Appropriations Committee partners to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to cut off money that is being used for political harassment and persecution.”Jayapal, Raskin, and more than 170 other House Democrats just sent a letter—obtained by The New Republic—sharply condemning Trump’s action against Omar.
信中写道：“在选举前22天，利用执法机关骚扰一名在任国会议员，前所未有，不可接受。”这封信收件人是司法部长托德·布兰奇和国土安全部长马克韦恩·穆林。信中继续写道：“我们要求你们不要采取进一步行动”，并强调：“我们支持奥马尔众议员。”
“This weaponization of law enforcement to harass a sitting Member of Congress 22 days before an election is unprecedented and unacceptable,” reads the letter, which is addressed to Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “We demand you refrain from taking further actions,” it continues, emphasizing: “We stand with Congresswoman Omar.”
这封信由众议员罗伯特·加西亚和本尼·汤普森牵头，两人分别是监督委员会和国土安全部委员会的民主党首席议员。这封信值得注意的地方在于，它在党内领导层和党团中为奥马尔表达了强有力的支持，并传递了民主党若占据多数席位可能采取的行动方式。信中指出，针对奥马尔的这次行动存在严重的实质性问题，称这次企图本身“不符合我们的民主”。
The letter—which is also led by Representatives Robert Garcia and Bennie Thompson, ranking Democrats on the Oversight and Homeland Security committees—is notable for the strong backing it shows for Omar within leadership and the caucus and for what it telegraphs about how a Democratic majority might proceed. It highlights grave substantive problems with the operation against Omar, calling the attempt itself “incompatible with our democracy.”
具体来说：据报道，政府正在为取消44岁奥马尔的入籍资格建立案件，理由是她的父亲在她的入籍申请表上造假，声称她当时17岁，而她据称当时是18岁。国土安全部特工执行了司法部获得的一项10月12日的搜查令，对奥马尔在华盛顿地区的住所进行了搜查，扣押了她的手机和许多其他物品。奥马尔是一名索马里难民，1995年作为青少年来到这里。
To wit: The administration is reportedly building a case for denaturalizing the 44-year-old Omar by showing that her father falsified her naturalization form by claiming she was 17 at the time, when she was supposedly 18. Homeland Security agents executed an October 12 search warrant secured by the Justice Department on the Washington-area home of Omar—a Somali refugee who arrived here in 1995 as a teenager—seizing her phone and many other items.
仅此一项就显得极不寻常。正如民主党人在信中写道，关于“她未成年时父亲提交的文件”的问题，并不能证明“凌晨对她住所的突袭”是合理的。这一举动还违反了司法部关于在选举前执行搜查令的规定。
That alone appears highly irregular. As the Democrats write, a “pre-dawn raid on her home” is not justified by questions about “paperwork her father filed when she was a minor.”The move also violates DOJ protocol about executing search warrants close to an election.
此外，民主党人的信中还引用了特朗普及其高层支持者的大量公开言论——他曾称她为“垃圾”，并主持过集会上“把她送回去”的呼喊——这些言论揭示了起诉背后深度腐败的动机。事实上，这显然是由特朗普的种族敌意和将一名批评者驱逐出境的狂热所驱动的。
What’s more, the Democrats’ letter cites extensive public statements from Trump and top supporters—he’s called her “garbage” and presided over rally chants of “Send her back”—that reveal deeply corrupt motives behind the prosecution. Indeed, it’s plainly driven by Trump’s racial animus and zeal to exile a critic from the country.
正如信中所暗示的，特朗普显然下令起诉许多其他批评者，包括六名敦促军人不要执行非法命令的议员。并非巧合的是，这些人也是特朗普试图打压的现任国会议员。
And as the letter suggests, Trump apparently ordered the prosecution of many other critics, including six lawmakers who urged military service members not to carry out illegal orders. Not coincidentally, those are also sitting members of Congress that Trump sought to humble.
值得注意的是，特朗普第一届政府的官员曾调查过这一关于奥马尔的说法，并未发现任何依据。无论如何，即使奥马尔的父亲确实伪造了表格，也完全不清楚奥马尔本人是否会为此承担责任。因此，针对奥马尔的行动很可能会像其他那些起诉一样失败。但仅仅等待这一结果发生是不够的。
Notably, officials during Trump’s first administration looked into this Omar theory and found no basis for it. Regardless, even if Omar’s father did falsify the form, it’s not at all clear Omar herself would be liable for it. So the targeting of Omar will likely fail, as those other prosecutions have. But simply waiting for that to happen isn’t enough.
相反，民主党人正在发出信号，表明对各种手段的部署以对抗此类迫害已被提上日程。通过积极行使监督权，民主党控制的众议院可以传唤特朗普、白宫、司法部和国土安全部之间关于针对奥马尔的所有通信。特朗普声称他并未亲自指示司法部追究奥马尔的决定；内部通信可能会显示并非如此。
Instead, Democrats are signaling that the deployment of all kinds of tactics against such persecutions is on the table. Employing aggressive oversight, a Democratic House could subpoena all communications between Trump, the White House, DOJ, and the Department of Homeland Security about the targeting of Omar. Trump has claimed he didn’t personally direct DOJ’s decision to pursue Omar; internal communications might show otherwise.
民主党人还可以鼓励举报人站出来，并传唤特朗普1.0时期对奥马尔所做的调查。他们可以寻求被指示执行奥马尔调查的中层官员作证，以确立腐败的程序和内部反对意见。同样身为司法委员会成员的贾亚帕尔告诉我：“假设选举按照我们希望的方式进行，那将会有更多激励让人们站出来。”拉斯基补充说：“从上到下涉及的每个人都将成为立法调查的对象。”
Democrats can also encourage whistleblowers to come forward and subpoena the investigation of Omar that was done under Trump 1.0. They can seek testimony from mid-level officials being directed to carry out the Omar investigation to establish corrupted processes and internal opposition. As Jayapal, also a member of the Judiciary Committee, told me: “Assuming the elections go the way we want, that’ll be more incentive for people to come forward.”“Everybody involved from top to bottom will be subject to legislative investigation,” Raskin added.
除了奥马尔之外，民主党人表示，他们将在更广泛的意义上调查参与腐败起诉的中层行为者。这可能产生重大影响。请注意，当密歇根州参议员埃莉萨·斯洛特金最近建议国会应针对执行特朗普腐败计划的那些不起眼官员时，MAGA阵营上演了一出虚假的愤怒闹剧。特朗普确实需要中层官僚和律师来执行高层腐败，而用正当调查针对他们将威胁到他的无法无天计划。
Beyond Omar, Democrats say they’ll probe mid-level actors involved in corrupt prosecutions in a broader sense. This could be consequential. Note that when Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin recently suggested Congress should target obscure officials executing Trump’s corrupt schemes, MAGA threw a phony outrage fit. Trump does need mid-level bureaucrats and lawyers to carry out high-level corruption, and targeting them with legitimate investigations would threaten his lawless project.
然后是钱袋子的权力。动用这一权力将涉及许多复杂问题，即究竟如何针对特定调查或部门进行撤资。但关键是，民主党人表示，他们目前正在探索如何实施这一举措。
Then there’s the power of the purse. Deploying this will involve many complexities around how exactly to target particular investigations or departments for defunding. But critically, Democrats say they’re currently exploring how to carry out this move.
“因为特朗普如此无法无天，我们必须尽可能谨慎地使用拨款权，以防止侵犯人们的宪法权利，”拉斯金告诉我。
“Because Trump is so lawless, we have got to use the appropriations power as carefully as we can to prevent violations of people’s constitutional rights,” Raskin told me.
这可行吗？乔治城大学教授乔什·查菲茨说，可行。他是一本关于国会及其权力的好书的作者。他指出，司法部可能会辩称国会干预个别起诉决定是违宪的，但无论如何民主党人都有充分的理由。
Is this feasible? Yes, says Georgetown professor Josh Chafetz, author of a good book on Congress and its powers. He notes that DOJ will likely argue that it’s unconstitutional for Congress to interfere with individual prosecutorial decisions but Democrats would have a good case anyway.
“国会几乎可以用钱袋子的权力做任何它想做的事，”查菲茨告诉我，并补充说，它可以对行政部门使用拨款“施加任何它想要的条件”，只要这些条件本身不违宪。查菲茨说，民主党人还可以尝试在拨款法案中写入更广泛的限制，针对特朗普在非法条件下直接下令的调查。
“Congress can do almost whatever it wants with the power of the purse,” Chafetz told me, adding that it can “put whatever conditions it wants” on the executive’s use of appropriations, so long as those conditions are not themselves unconstitutional. Democrats can also try to write broader limits into appropriations bills against investigations ordered up directly by Trump under illicit conditions, Chafetz says.
特朗普当然会反对此类举措。这会导致政府拨款摊牌吗？是的，有可能。那好：让共和党人在围绕保持政府运转的斗争中为这些腐败起诉辩护吧，而特朗普正把他们拖得越来越深。是的，这一切都将被无休止地诉诸法律。放马过来吧。
Trump will of course oppose such moves. Could that lead to government funding showdowns? Yes, it could. Fine: Let Republicans defend these corrupt prosecutions in fights over keeping the government open as Trump drags them ever downward. And yes, this will all be endlessly litigated. Bring it on.
因为归根结底，民主党必须尝试。一次又一次，特朗普明确命令执法部门在针对民主党批评者的过程中，完全无视事实和法律的规定。而正如《新共和》的迈克尔·托马斯基所写，在奥马尔的问题上，利害关系尤为重大。特朗普已将国家权力施压于一个群体——其中包含大量美国公民——而他公开将这个群体定为内部的族裔敌人。民主党必须拿出极具创造性的应对之策。而且任何立法策略——没有任何一个——应当被排除在外。
Because the bottom line is this: Democrats have to try. Again and again, Trump has expressly commanded law enforcement to simply disregard what facts and law dictate in the quest to target Democratic critics. And as TNR’s Michael Tomasky writes, the stakes are particularly high with Omar. Trump has unleashed the power of the state on a group—one that includes a whole lot of U.S. citizens—that he’s openly designated an ethnic enemy within. Democrats must get very creative in response. And no legislative tactic—none—should be off the table.